Man found dead at alcoholic center

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A man who was slurring his speech and appeared intoxicated was found dead on New Year’s Day at a controversial center in Anchorage where chronic street alcoholics are allowed to keep drinking.

The center has been under fire for its unconventional approach to dealing with alcoholism in Anchorage, where advocates have been looking for new ways to help homeless alcoholics after more than 20 people – most of them severely intoxicated – died outdoors over a 12-month period in 2009 and 2010.

Employees checked on 54-year-old John Kort several times Sunday after a visitor noticed that he appeared drunk and was having trouble walking.

When an employee checked on him the third time, Kort was face-down on his bed, not breathing and his hands were cold, said Anchorage police spokesman Dave Parker.

Parker said there was no suicide note. Alcohol and perhaps pills are believed to be factors in his death. An empty prescription pill bottle was found in his room.

Karluk Manor, which opened less than a month ago in a former Red Roof Inn, is based on the Housing First model that maintains that chronic alcoholics are best served by providing them with safe housing as a first step toward self-sufficiency and eventual integration into the community. The manor was modeled after the 1811 Eastlake project in Seattle, where hundreds of housing units have been provided for chronic alcoholics.

The experiment has caught on in other cities as well – sometimes with positive results. A 2009 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Seattle’s program saved taxpayers more than $4 million a year and credited the system with helping many alcoholics kick their habit.

Karluk Manor residents each pay $50 a month for a 220-square-foot furnished efficiency with a private bathroom. Each unit has a microwave, small refrigerator and dining area. Residents are allowed to drink in their rooms.

Deaths were expected to occur at the 46-unit facility. The program’s management plan has a section titled “Procedures in the Event of Death.”

But Kort’s death highlights the problem with Karluk Manor, said Michael Howard, president of the Fairview Community Council, which opposed the opening of the manor in the neighborhood already dealing with its share of homeless alcoholics and associated problems.

“A situation like this is sad,” Howard said Tuesday. “To say this is working … there is fundamental disagreement.”

Karluk Manor is run by the nonprofit organization Rural Alaska Community Action Program. Melinda Freemon, the group’s director of supportive housing, said Kort had been homeless for about 20 years and spent the last 10 years in Anchorage.

“In addition to his chronic alcoholism, he had multiple medical conditions and he was in very fragile health,” she said in a prepared statement.