City: Investigation into operator of homeless shelter in Anchorage was flawed

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s administration says an Anchorage Health Department investigation into homeless shelter operator Henning Inc., completed in the last days of the previous administration, was flawed and inadequate, but it will not be repeated.

“The potential benefit of a new investigation does not justify the cost and delay that would be required,” said the memorandum, signed by the government’s top legal officials.

Founded in 2021, Henning operates emergency shelters for the community, including a low-barrier mass shelter in the former Waste Management building on Old Seward Highway since last October.

In May, the Anchorage Assembly ordered an investigation into the organization after screenshots of disturbing text messages between Henning’s staff and the city’s then-homeless coordinator, Alexis Johnson, became public.

Among the text messages were references to weapons, including bringing a “Glock” to work, jokes about using boxing gloves on a customer, and references to plans to incentivize homeless shelter residents to vote for then-Mayor Dave Bronson’s re-election campaign. Henning executives said the messages were taken out of context and defended their operation of the shelter.

Lawmakers said they raised doubts about whether the group, entrusted with housing some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, was acting within legal and ethical boundaries. By that point, the city had paid Henning nearly $10 million, including “pass-through funds.”

The Anchorage Health Department submitted an 18-page report that essentially found that Henning’s staff had done nothing wrong but made suggestions for improving the management of the shelter.

“The text messages sent among employees may be perceived as distasteful by outsiders, but the texts themselves do not constitute a breach of the terms of the contract, nor has any investigation shown that they are linked to a breach of the terms of the contract,” the report said.

It was largely completed under the previous administration of former Mayor Dave Bronson, but underwent a “limited engineering review” after LaFrance took office on July 1, the memorandum said.

In a memorandum on the Anchorage Assembly agenda on Tuesday, the city’s top attorneys said the investigation “falls short of expectations despite the valued efforts of the staff who conducted the investigation and prepared the report.”

The investigation did not include interviews with all relevant individuals, lacked context and contained findings that were “not supported by the record,” the memo from LaFrance administration officials said, among other deficiencies.

“Despite its shortcomings, the report nevertheless shows that Henning’s staff and the former AHD employee acted in a manner that was not worthy of the public trust,” the memo said.

The city plans to include a clause in future contracts clarifying that contractors’ offices or employees may not engage in political advocacy while “actively performing contracted services,” may not bring firearms to work on city property, and must “behave in a manner that respects the public.”

Henning continues to run the mass shelter. In July, the Anchorage Assembly voted to extend the organization’s contract through mid-October, despite some members expressing concerns about offering a contract extension amid an investigation.

The report was not discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, said Felix Rivera, an assembly member who represents Midtown.

“For me personally, the memo attached to the report made it clear that the report was inadequate and did not meet the goals we had set for ourselves,” he said Wednesday. “So I saw no need to discuss a report that did not do what we intended. The memo laid out some changes that will be implemented with Henning in the future.”

Since Henning has stated that they have no interest in continuing to operate the animal shelter, Rivera said, “the problem is solved.”

Henning’s executive director, Shawn Hays, said she has not heard anything directly from the new administration about the report. Hays pointed to the Assembly, which she said has undermined the organization “in a confirmation loop where the Assembly is just trying to confirm their previous false assumptions.” The organization’s success in housing people speaks for itself, she said.

Hays said her organization will not seek to operate mass housing after October, but is willing to manage non-congregate shelters. The city needs operators, she said.

“We don’t want to watch people freeze to death,” she said.

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