In total nineteen homeless men and women died on the streets of Anchorage in the twelve month period between 7 May 2009 and 18 April 2010.*) This amounts to almost 5% of the total homeless population in Anchorage, estimated at about 400 persons. In total, the number of homeless deaths in the streets exceeded that annual homicide total for the city. For a visitor, the death rate is shocking. The topology of death on the streets is stark: park benches, scrub land, roadside ditches and even a rubbish compactor. Each case is depressing in itself, but cumulatively it creates a litany of a desolate urban wasteland.