The Access Alaska building at 1217 E. 10th Ave. in Fairview. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has asked for a pause on a new behavioral health center proposed for the Fairview neighborhood following pushback from residents and other elected officials.
The Anchorage Assembly last week was set to award a contract to True North Recovery to cover the purchase of a property for a new behavioral health and navigation center to be located at 1217 E. 10th Ave. Following the contract’s approval, the Anchorage Health Department would pass through $750,000 in federal grant money for the Wasilla-based addiction treatment organization to expand its services in Anchorage.
While the project has been in the works for about a year, the specific terms of the contract — including where the center would be located — had not been publicly discussed before the meeting where Assembly members were set to allocate the money.
A memo attached to the April 28 meeting agenda from LaFrance to the Assembly was the first public notice that True North Recovery planned to house its new Anchorage Launchpad program in Fairview.
After learning about the proposal, Fairview Community Council members urged the Assembly to halt the project, stating the neighborhood has been overwhelmed by a high concentration of social services.
“We are already saturated with them,” Council President Allen Kemplen said Thursday. He has lived in the neighborhood for 36 years. “It’s almost creating an ecosystem that’s leading to urban decay.”
LaFrance requested that Assembly members pull the contract off Tuesday’s agenda.
“I ask that you not move this item so we can have a community-wide conversation about treatment facilities here in Anchorage and where we locate those facilities,” LaFrance said.
City spokesperson Emily Goodykoontz said the municipality plans to meet with True North Recovery and the Fairview Community Council in the coming weeks to discuss next steps.
3 other neighborhoods considered
The Anchorage Health Department selected True North Recovery through a competitive request for grant proposals last spring. True North Recovery plans to use the money to purchase a property that will house a program modeled after its existing Day One Center in the Mat-Su.
The Day One Center, a withdrawal management center in Wasilla, in January 2023. (Loren Holmes / ADN archive)
The organization is eyeing the East 10th Avenue building that also houses Access Alaska, a nonprofit that serves residents with disabilities. The two entities would share the space, which is the former location of the Fairview Community Health Center.
According to a March needs assessment, True North Recovery considered Mountain View, Midtown and the University-Medical District as potential locations based on need for behavioral health access points in those neighborhoods and the distance to partner providers. The intent is to launch the Anchorage program before the end of the year, the report states.
Because the municipality is not paying for or managing the project, the public engagement requirements were less rigorous, said Jedediah Drolet, a program manager in the Anchorage Health Department. He also cited long delays in the grant award process due to the federal government shutdown.
True North Recovery founder and CEO Karl Soderstrom said the organization spent a year searching for a facility that was ADA compliant, zoned correctly and in a central location. The organization wanted to figure out if the acquisition of the Fairview building was possible before approaching residents, he said.
Soderstrom said True North Recovery operates in a way that doesn’t “stress or negatively impact” its neighbors.
“I think there’s some fear that this is going to be a crisis center where all the crisis comes to,” Soderstrom said. “Actually, that’s not the case. We’re a referral source to help get people connected.”
LaFrance told the Assembly on Tuesday that she viewed the True North Recovery project as an opportunity for the municipality to ensure community impacts are considered during its grant award process.
Drolet said the municipality plans to revise its grant process to require a 30-day public comment period and public hearing. These changes will apply to the True North Recovery project.
“This (project) shows a gap in the requirements for outreach that we need to adjust,” Drolet said.
Elected officials and neighbors push back
In an April 28 email sent to numerous members of the LaFrance administration, former Assembly Chair and North Anchorage representative Chris Constant said the intent to approve the contract with less than 48 hours of public notice is a “major problem.”
State Sen. Löki Tobin, an Anchorage Democrat, in a reply on the email chain called the lack of transparency disappointing.
“This administration is once again imposing additional services on Fairview — a historic community of color that has consistently been burdened with more than its fair share of community resources,” said Tobin, who represents downtown and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
In the thread, Thea Agnew Bemben, a special assistant to the mayor who focuses on homelessness and health, said Anchorage continues to have a “severe need” for expanded access to behavioral health treatment services. She referenced more than 2,000 opioid-related incidents reported by the Anchorage Fire Department in 2025.
Agnew Bemben said the services proposed are not “harmful” or “burdens” to Fairview or other neighborhoods.
The municipality, she said, recently supported three other new behavioral health projects: crisis stabilization centers at Southcentral Foundation and Providence; the Willow Commons microunit project; and Alder Place, the former Golden Lion Hotel. None are located in Fairview, Agnew Bemben said.
“Reducing barriers to treatment is necessary; the proposed project promises just that,” Agnew Bemben said.
Willow Commons transitional living has 32 microunits for people participating in substance use treatment and who are unhoused. Photographed on April 2. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Longtime Fairview Community Council member SJ Klein considers the proposed location of the new True North Recovery center the heart of Fairview. It’s a quiet part of the neighborhood, where it’s common for kids to play in the street unsupervised, he said. The building is less than a block away from the Fairview Community Recreation Center, and along a path regularly traversed by elementary students after school.
In the same email chain with Assembly members, Klein said the neighborhood does not oppose drug and behavioral health services. The Brother Francis Shelter, the Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web, the Anchorage Safety Center and Linda’s Place all fall within its boundaries, he said.
Klein said while he recognized the need for behavioral health services in Anchorage, he hopes the community council can convince city officials and True North Recovery to find a different location. He said he believed the high concentration of services had led to local business closures, and the presence of drugs, crime and disturbances.
“It’s just the wrong place for a really good concept,” Klein said Thursday.
This isn’t the first time Anchorage residents have been surprised by project proposals intended to expand Anchorage’s addiction treatment options.
In 2020, members of the Midtown Community Council expressed concern about the municipality’s desire to convert the Best Western Golden Lion Hotel on the corner of East 36th Avenue and the Seward Highway into a treatment center. Council members said the city unveiled the proposal with little public notice. The issue became a broader controversy, factoring into the 2021 election that saw Dave Bronson elected Anchorage mayor.