I stayed at Jason's Hostel for about 3 months. I think it was a absolutely terrible experience. I don't know anyone in Anchorage, and I was hoping people would be friendly like people tend to be in other cities in the lower 48, especially to the new arrivals, but all I got was hostility from the staff and the fellow residents. The people who run the hostel are some of the most vile people I've ever had to deal with, but not wanting to stay at a homeless shelter, and not having great information about where to go, and wanting to avoid the constant daily drama from the staff and residents, I choose to go to work, and look for a place to move to on my own, via the internet. My whole time there I was treated like a second class citizen, even though I was not once late on rent.
A few of the people staying at Jason's don't even have to pay rent, even though they do nothing for the hostel that's worth mentioning. They bragged so many times, I got sick of hearing about it. The people who inhabit the hostel are mostly self centered and self absorbed, meaning, they'll talk at other individuals all day and not hear a word anyone else had to say. Seems to be the trend there; to speak in a monologue directed at others in proximity. The conversations to be had at Jason's almost totally lack substance.
The place is infested with vicious bedbugs and thieving lunatic meth addicts too, but the staff just make excuses for why they can't do anything realistic to get rid of them. Don't leave anything even remotely valuable laying around at the hostile hostel called Jason's, because if your roommates don't steal it, the random riffraff off the streets that doesn't stay there will if given the chance. Often it's the local whores, or the local good o' boy thief that sells cheap that are allowed to come in and given access to the rooms that take from others; mostly it's those people who go to work that get targeted.
If you've got better place to be, or if you're new in town, I suggest looking for something better, even if the house rules are greater or the price is higher, because just about anything goes if you're a friend of the Jason's Staff. Fighting will get you kicked out though, but only if you're not kissing a staff members ass first.
Lance and Bengi are by far the most repulsive members of the staff. Lance is a wanna-be Gestapo that acts like a hard ass even though he got his ass kicked by the skinny Eskimo meth addict that stays there rent free, who goes by the name of Barbara and fucks the Manager named Cree. Lance will see a person minding their own business, and will feel compelled to start pick a fight with them. The instance you call him on it, or get offended by the overt disrespect he spews, he'll threaten to kick you out, but won't because he has to walk to his other job in the mornings.
Bengi is a disgusting older guy that likes to get into everyone's business and gossip, and call everyone else stupid or crazy, but yet he can't figure out why no one is attracted to the crack of his ass which he displays every single day. If you try to avoid looking at his ass, he'll go out of his way to try to put it in your line of sight, especially if you're a young handsome man.
One guy living there named Tom screams and curses loudly whenever he opens his mouth, be it 3am in the morning or any other time of the day, and finds a reason to get angry and throw a temper tantrum at least once a day over incredibly trifling issues that every other grown person deals with at Jasons, just so he can get attention and scream even louder. 9 out of 10 times the staff and residents let it slide, but anyone else gets too loud, the staff is quick to tell them to quite down. This is the kind of good o' boy stuff that really isn't appealing to decent people, but these pieces of shit bask in it.
There are other good o' boys and girls riding Jason's into the dirt. From what I've heard, it used to be a decent place to stay at. Now the rooms are so filthy, and the locals so ignorant you don't want to be at this place unless you have no where else to go, and if you're in that situation, I'd advise you to keep your personal information to yourself, especially if you're going to be stay for a while, because the tendency of the residents is to act snobbish, predatorial, territorial, unfriendly, rude, hateful, obnoxious, and just plain ignorant. Maybe it's because of the lax, wishy washy house rules, which are anything but consistent or applied equally. If the place winds up burnt down, or condemned, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.
After 3 months of almost constant harassment from the staff and residents at Jason's it gets my vote for the shittiest flop house in Anchorage, and it has most definitely earned every single negative thing I've said about it. read more
