Unalaska, AK – The City's Planning and Zoning Commission voted down the permit to build an emergency housing shelter in downtown Unalaska last week. About 50 people attended the meeting to comment on the proposal to build the Alexandria House on the site of the old Elbow Room. Almost all of the 23 impassioned testifiers said that Unalaska needs an emergency shelter for men, however most of them felt that it should be built at a different location.

Vicki Williams was born and raised in Unalaska and has property near the site. She and others said they didn't want to invite strangers into the neighborhood who might cause problems for their families and children. She said that the neighborhood is different and safer with the bars gone, and the historic area needs to be preserved.

"You know this town has changed so much. I was born and raised here and I would like to see something remain part of the native history," she said. "Not much else stayed the same, so I'd like to see something remain for the natives, the way it is."

Williams is on the commission but decided to abstain from voting. Commissioner Chris Bobbitt said he understands the need for a shelter but thinks it should be closer to the community's resources, like the airport and grocery stores. He and the other two voting commissioners voted against the conditional use change that would allow the shelter to be built at that location..

The proposed Alexandria House was to be run by John Honan from the Unalaska Christian Fellowship. For the past 15 years he's run an emergency shelter out of the church, which is next to the PCR and the high school. He said that he's glad people expressed their concerns about the shelter but he disagrees. He said the shelter does not attract drunken people to the area like people are afraid it will.

"We don't have drunk people hanging around Unalaska Christian Fellowship. So the fears people have are legitimate in the mindset of the bar, in the mindset of the Elbow Room, in the mindset of what's historically happened down there. That's all they've seen," Honan said. "They have not seen how it can be done and you actually have children's activities and all kinds of social activities where I am currently doing it."

Honan explained that his program is for more than giving shelter. It's to help people get back on their feet and either get a job or leave the island. He provides housing on a day-to-day basis to people who are sober and also shelters people who are stranded by the weather and can't afford a hotel.

"And like I said, these are people that we house them aggressively. It's one night. I'm sending you here for one night. And tomorrow you're going to come up with a plan and we're going to work that plan and if by tomorrow night you've aggressively worked that plan and you're clean and sober, we'll reevaluate and see if you can stay another night."

Honan planned on building at the old Elbow Room site because it was donated to him by Mark Horn. He said he tried to swap the land for a piece on Amaknak Island but did not get a positive response. The Ounalashka Corporation's CEO Wendy Svarny-Hawthorn said the O.C. does not sell land because the land was given to the corporation as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. She said she told Honan the corporation would be willing to lease him land if he submitted a proposal to the board. Though Honan gave the O.C. a letter, he never submitted a proposal that could be properly considered.

Honan said he plans on continuing his work out of the church until he comes up with another solution.