The population of Alaska is declining So why does the housing market seem more tight than ever before? At the Southeast Conference on Thursday, an expert panel on housing identified the most pressing issues in Alaska’s Alaska housing market as well as specific strategies to solve these problems.
The housing crisis in Alaska isn’t really news, nor is it anything new. Nolan Klouda leads the University of Alaska’s Center for Economic Development.
“I do not think that housing has never been a particularly prosperous place for our economy because of a myriad many reasons” Klouda said. “You know that we’ve always had cost-intensive housing and issues with access.”
Klouda noted that while the population of Alaska’s communities has declined however, the demand for housing has been up byabout 9 percent since the year. This is due to families having fewer children, and the family size has decreased.
“When adults reside together, you’ll notice that there is usually only a couple in a household” he explained. “And that’s why we have, basically more households even though there are smaller households with fewer people.”
Klouda acknowledged that efforts to build more homes could be held up due to a myriad of reasons.
“Sometimes it’s topography and often it’s the landownership which doesn’t permit the land,” he said. “Anything which can be made to open up land is crucial, such as the construction of access points or infrastructure for sites which, in some instances, local governments are able to supervise.”
He emphasized the growth of short-term rental market as a further aspect to consider.
“Even even if it’s not a significant percentage of your total homes at any moment it’s always growing,” he said. “And this puts your community on a bit of a collision course for instance, when it comes to housing affordability and availability.”
Jackie Pata is the president and CEO of the Tlingit and Haida Regional Housing Authority which offers assistance with housing and financial aid to communities throughout the Southeast. Pata stated that, in addition to issues regarding infrastructure and regulations she has been focusing on financial education for buyers as well as training local construction crews. This approach has had some results. She cited a few small communities in the Southeast, such as Yakutat and Angoon which are building new housing at a person rate that is higher than the statewide average.
“My training programs for apprentices, similar to the ones those we’ve got in Angoon They can now build homes all year long using their own local team and create their own jobs” Pata said. “Because there is an urgent need. We make use of our funds and we create our own team and continue to use these funds. We also realized that we weren’t going to have communities built-and-busted for a long time.”
Randy Hughey, the Executive Director of Sitka’s Community Land Trust, shared an alternative model to provide what he described as “permanently accessible housing.” In the Sitka Land Trust model that allows those with low to moderate incomes are eligible buyers buy a tiny house on land that is owned through the trust. If they decide to sell the property their gains are capped to make the house accessible to the next buyer.
“Like the different models for portability it transforms renters into owners and wouldn’t that be the thing we want to achieve for our local communities? ” Hughey said. “Provide an opportunity for children and children to buy their own house and remain there to have their children, and also become component of communities. We’re looking to turn tenants to owners.”
Hughey stated that land trusts comprise a tiny part in the Alaska housing puzzle. Pata also shared the same sentiment in saying that a multifaceted approach is essential toward solving the housing shortage in Alaska.
“We love the place we’re in We are an integral part of the community and we’ll always stay here for a long time,” Pata said. She also said that the towns in the region were searching for every chance to make homes affordable, to slow the process of emigration and enable residents “to remain in our villages and within the communities we live in.”
Thursday was the last day on the final day of Southeast Conference. There are resources available through their site at seconference.org.
