Mayor LaFrance celebrates accomplishments from year one in office

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July 01, 2025
July 1, 2025

Mayor LaFrance celebrates accomplishments from year one in office
Today marks one full year in office for Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and her team. 
Since July 1, 2024, the Mayor has been laser-focused on five priority areas: Improving public safety, building more housing, addressing homelessness, restoring good government, and building Anchorage’s future through economic development.  
The LaFrance administration has made significant strides in each of these categories. The administration’s list of accomplishments is long and wide-ranging, from launching APD’s HOPE Team, abating 28 homeless camps across Anchorage, creating tax incentives and building code reforms to spark affordable housing, and supporting new developments downtown and near the airport. 
Several community economic indicators underscore this progress. The Municipality’s economy is growing: According to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, employment increased by 1,800 jobs from May 2024 to May 2025, while Anchorage’s unemployment rate is at a near record low of 3.7%, lower than the national average (4.2%), and much lower than the state average (4.5%). Permitting is up across all construction types, and a record number of ADUs were built in 2024. In the first half of 2025, we’ve already permitted double the previous year’s total number of multifamily housing units. 
“I’m very proud of what our team has accomplished in the last twelve months,” Mayor LaFrance said. “This year has been all about laying a strong foundation for good government, listening to our community, making tough decisions, and growing strategic partnerships across every sector of the Municipality. I am grateful to the Anchorage Assembly for the strong, positive working relationship we’ve built, and for the collaboration and energy with which our community confronts its challenges. As we move into year two, I am more hopeful than ever about Anchorage’s future.”  
To see highlights from Mayor LaFrance’s first year in office, read on! 
 
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Mayor Suzanne LaFrance
Year One Accomplishments
Public Safety 
  • Enrolled a full cohort of recruits for the Anchorage Police Department academy for the first time in five years.    
  • Hired 19 community service officers to increase a safety presence across the community. 
  • Increased the proactive presence of mobile crisis care teams and Municipal public safety staff in high-traffic areas to help people feel safer in public spaces.    
  • Created the HOPE Team pilot project where a sworn officer is paired with a clinician to provide direct outreach to hundreds of people living outside. 
  • Rebuilt Municipal prosecution capacity and our ability to enforce the law. Line prosecutors are full strength for the first time in years.  
  • Prosecution has eliminated speedy trial dismissals and regained the capacity to prosecute all categories of municipal crimes. 
  • Laying the groundwork for a pre-trial diversion program through APD to get people who need treatment access to care instead of being sent to jail.  
  • Began redevelopment of Town Square Park to improve the public experience of downtown, including police patrols, installation of safety cameras and new lighting, tree and graffiti removal, fresh paint, public toilets, and community concerts and events. 
  • Advocated for and helped ensure $10 million in behavioral health funds were included in the legislative budget for 2025. 
  • Hired a qualified, professional outside contractor to do a comprehensive six-month review of APD policies on training and tactics relating to use of force and de-escalation.  
  • Received $25 million in Safe Streets for All federal grant funding to improve safety on Bragaw Street. 
  • Accelerated community wildfire preparation, including hiring a Wildfire Division Chief. According to Fire Chief Schrage, we’ve done “more in the last 7 months than in the last 17 years” to prevent a catastrophic wildfire in Anchorage. 
  • Made Municipal wood lots free for people to clear woody debris and other wildfire fuel from their yards and neighborhoods. 
  • Working with the Assembly, made it a crime to start fires without permission on private or public land during wildfire season; in a burn ban; or in public rights-of-way. 
Housing  
  • Collaboratively developed and launched the 10,000 Homes in Ten Years strategy to get more housing built in the Municipality. 
  • Created a new property tax incentive for multi-family housing, which is already leading to new projects. 
  • Updated the rezoning process to make it easier for property owners and the Municipality to implement the Comprehensive Plan. 
  • Streamlined the permitting appeals process to eliminate barriers to building housing while still protecting the rights of property owners with standing.  
  • Fixed standards for site access which had unintentionally blocked housing development through a collaborative working group involving builders and community members. 
  • Paused aesthetic standards to reduce the cost to build housing, making it possible for the Cook Inlet Housing Authority to break ground on an affordable housing project this summer. 
  • Supporting a positive culture of development and leadership at the Permit Center. 
  • Resolved legal issues to get the Nordstrom’s building downtown development-ready. 
  • Putting out the Archives RFP for new development on the Muni’s land in Midtown 
  • Creating a property tax incentive for rehabilitation to get neglected buildings back into the housing market. 
  • Using enforcement tools to hold owners accountable for dangerous, abandoned, and neglected buildings. 
  • Helped route over $2 million in federal funding through the State to Cook Inlet Housing Authority to help build affordable housing in the Baxter Development. 
  • In the first half of 2025, we’ve doubled the number of multifamily housing units permitted compared to all of 2024. 
  • Increased permitting for all construction types, including a record number of ADUs in 2024.  
Economic Development 
  • Issued a comprehensive plan of finance for the Port of Alaska and issued first round of revenue bonds to support construction of a new cargo terminal. 
  • Proactively supporting new businesses and developments through Municipal tax incentives, from the Wildbirch Hotel (110 jobs) to the Northlink cargo terminal project (450 jobs, on-site childcare).  
  • Supported childcare across Anchorage, Eagle River, and Girdwood with almost $6 million from the cannabis fund. 
  • Launched redevelopment of the Alaska Native Services Hospital site on Third Avenue by the Anchorage Community Development Authority.  
  • Established the Beyond the Beige partnership with ACDA to create a grant program for community projects that bring vibrant enhancements to spaces around Anchorage. 
  • Successfully advocated for new state legislation to fix Canyon Road and improve access to the Sunnyside of Flattop.   
  • Built strong partnerships with community organizations like Visit Anchorage, AEDC, Anchorage Chamber, Anchorage Downtown Partnership, and more to proactively spur community development. 
Homelessness 
  • Established a predictable year-round shelter system for the first time in the Municipality of Anchorage. 
  • Identified and received $2.5 million in pass-through community grant funding from the state to support expanded and stable shelter. 
  • Harnessed $5.5 million in federal rental relief to more than 300 local families. 
  • Abated 28 encampments since taking office, swiftly and assertively responding to new legal tools established by U.S. Supreme Court’s mid-2024 decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. 
  • Anchorage Police Department launched the HOPE Team, strengthening outreach and public safety by building positive, genuine relationships with both providers and people living outside. They’ve helped 45 people move into shelter or housing and connected others to substance-abuse treatment.  
  • Abated Davis Park and the neighboring snow dump, one of the largest, oldest, and most entrenched encampments, started June 17. More than 50 people, roughly half of those in the encampment, took shelter/housing/treatment options provided by our outreach teams. 
  • Parks and Rec Healthy Spaces team removed more than a million pounds of trash from public space in the last six months alone. 
  • Restructured and coordinated Municipal outreach teams across the Fire, Health, and Police departments to prioritize getting the right care to the right person at the right time. Our teams now include 13 clinicians focused on meeting the community’s most vulnerable people where they’re at to provide direct care.  
  • Launched new initiative to use opioid settlement funding to build up to 30 microunits for recovery.  
  • Launched a public-facing dashboard for community members to track key homelessness metrics at MOA - Turning the tide.  
  • Developed partnerships and strengthened connections with mental health and substance use providers to improve referral pathways. 
  • Sold the Sprung Structure, receiving more than $2 million to put toward winter homelessness solutions while removing the cost of its storage from the Muni’s balance sheet. 
Good Government 
  • Four former head Municipal Attorneys have returned to the Municipality in key roles—Becky Windt Pearson as Municipal Manager, Bill Falsey as Chief Administrative Officer, Dennis Wheeler as Municipal Prosecutor, Kathryn Vogel as Senior Counsel. 
  • Rebuilt the civil litigation team and brought almost all litigation back in-house from private outside counsel, saving taxpayer money. 
  • Voters passed a fiscally responsible bond package which included updates to Chugach access, safety updates to Town Square Park, and a levy to maintain our snow removal fleet for the long term. 
  • Founded the Muni Snow Solutions Team. The 12 Municipal departments involved in snow removal started working together earlier than ever to ensure the Muni was coordinated, supplied, and prepared for snow removal. 
  • Installed GPS on our plows and graders so the public can track snow removal from home. We hosted a snowplow naming contest to bring community investment and some joy to our snow fleet.  
  • Made the Municipality a better place to work by . . .  
  • Significantly expanding Municipal telework opportunities through a new negotiated agreement without employee union; and 
  • Expanding paid parental leave to all Municipal employees. 
  • From finalizing financials left undone by the previous administration to re-writing Title 7 to modernizing procurement and payments procedures, we worked hard to get some the under-the-hood Municipal machinery back in smooth working condition.  
  • Adopted new purchasing rules for the Municipality in order to improve the transparency and efficiency of the use of taxpayer funds. 
  • Rebuilt the Municipal Controller’s office and filled significant vacancies in order to help get the Municipality’s fiscal house in order and our audited financials back on track. 
  • Created and filled office of grant development to seek outside funding for community priorities. 
  • Filled vacancies in the Municipal workforce, including facilitating new recruitment videos for Anchorage and the Municipality.  
  • Developed and conducted Municipal-wide Language Access Training for directors and staff, in compliance with federal law and so all residents can fully access Municipal services. 
  • Launched @Muni.Works.AK social media accounts to recruit, promote, and share the good work happening at the Municipality. 
  • Worked alongside tribal leaders to develop educational opportunities for staff around tribal relationships and the Native Village of Eklutna. 
  • Rebuilt strong working partnerships with key partners including the Anchorage Assembly, the state, the federal delegation, and JBER. 
  • Filled 169 seats on Municipal boards and commissions, many of which had been previously unable to meet due to lack of quorum.  
  • Attended and hosted more than 210 constituent meetings and events, including Friends of the Library, the Special Olympics annual breakfast, the NALA (North Anchorage Land Agreement) Summit with JBER and Eklutna, Anchorage Senior Veterans' Celebration, MMIW AK Working Group, ASD Freshman Career Expo, the Ted Steven's Center for Arctic Security Conference, and many others.  
  • Awarded $312,431 in community grants to 42 local non-profits whose work supports priorities including public safety, housing, and community preparedness. 
Contact:
Emily Goodykoontz, Press Secretary
emily.goodykoontz@anchorageak.gov, (907) 205-6683