Body found in cardboard pile at recycling center

June 14, 2010

The body of a man was found in a pile of cardboard at the Anchorage Recycling Center Monday. (Bill Costello/KTUU-DT)

by Jason Lamb
Monday, June 14, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services issued a new warning about sleeping in trash containers after a dead man was found buried under a pile of cardboard Monday at the Anchorage Recycling Center. Police say the man might have died in a Dumpster before it arrived at the center.

The death comes after the city tried warning the homeless of that very danger last year. Police say Monday's discovery is apparently similar to an incident at the Dimond Center in March, when a homeless man was crushed in a trash compactor.

The city's homeless coordinator says it's a specific danger to the homeless people living outside, about which officials tried to get word out last year.

Police say a worker at the recycling center on Rosewood Street who was operating a front-end loader saw the body at about 1:30 p.m. Officials say the man was probably homeless, likely using cardboard inside a container to stay warm.

"Not that different than what we found at the Dimond Center, when we had the unfortunate incident in the Dimond Center in that compactor there," said APD Sgt. Mike Jensen.

The homeless living in Dumpsters is a problem that Mayor Dan Sullivan's Homeless Leadership Team discussed last year. The city's homeless coordinator, Darrel Hess, says sometimes sleeping in a Dumpster is the best option a homeless person has.

"Especially if you have newspapers and cardboard, they actually retain warmth, and in many ways -- I had the same question -- they're a lot more comfortable than sleeping on hard ground," Hess said.

Last year, the city and Solid Waste Services sent out fliers that didn't pull any punches about the dangers of sleeping in Dumpsters.

"We got Bean's (Cafe) and Brother Francis (Shelter), they actually put the fliers on the Dumpsters down by their facilities, and we handed them out and did some educational outreach," Hess said.

The Homeless Leadership Team says it also wants to move forward recommendations it gave to the mayor's office last month, including the formation of a Homeless Action Response Team, or HART.

"The thought behind that team is that we'll go into camps, illegal camps, when they're closed down to assist the campers into services and/or housing," Hess said.

Some members of the leadership team say they hope HART will be more proactive, eventually reaching out to the homeless to show them there's a better way to live.

The city says it hopes to reach out to private businesses to teach them about the dangers of homeless people sleeping in trash containers.

Contact Jason Lamb at jlamb@ktuu.com

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