Hypothermia death exposes hole in Fairbanks’ homeless care

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The case of a homeless man who froze to death in Alaska’s second-largest city of Fairbanks has exposed a hole in the safety net of care provided to a vulnerable population in one of the country’s coldest places. Fairbanks lacks a low-barrier emergency shelter that consistently and unconditionally offers an open door and a warm cot. That leaves those who are homeless to walk the streets at night, crowd into motel rooms 10 at a time, sleep in abandoned houses or cars or dig snow caves. The Anchorage Daily News reports the body of Charles Ahkiviana was discovered frozen in a snowbank near a busy department store on Dec. 23. The temperature was minus 32 degrees.