Workforce housing needed: statewide growth is in jeopardy due to lack of housing.

• Author: Evans, Eliza
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

In recent months, Alaska's shortage of workforce housing, both market priced and affordable, has been thoroughly documented and well publicized. In many parts of the state, there are simply too few housing units to meet both current and projected housing needs. "Affordable housing" generally means people are spending no more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

"Anchorage Housing Market Analysis," a 2012 study by the McDowell Group for the Municipality of Anchorage Planning Division, noted that "without changes in the existing construction environment, Anchorage will not be able to accommodate the forecast for population growth, which could have adverse effects on the area's growth and economic health."

The study concluded: "Given the historic density of development and rate of redevelopment, the Anchorage Bowl does not have sufficient vacant buildable residential land to accommodate the demand for housing units forecasted over the next 20 years."

According to the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation's 2014 3-Year Economic Outlook report, the city's "local economy is not realizing its full potential because of the housing situation."

Michele Brown, president of United Way of Anchorage, says, "Anchorage needs eighteen thousand net new housing units by 2030, according to experts commissioned by the city. Current production rates are about a third of what's needed to meet our need. We're already feeling the pinch: 48 percent of our neighbors say there is insufficient housing to buy and 56 percent report insufficient stock to rent. And half of our residents pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing. That's a serious red flag."

Statewide Housing Shortage

And the problem is not specific to Anchorage. According to a recent Economic Research Case Study from the Juneau Economic Development Council, "The number of new housing units permitted and built in Juneau has not kept pace with local demand, while at the same time single family homes sales prices are at an all-time high. In the rental market, low income residents are being pushed out of affordable rentals by median and above median income households."

The Juneau Economic Development Council has concluded Juneau needs approximately two hundred fair market rental units and five hundred single family homes to improve Juneau's housing market and vacancy rates.

Greg Chaney, Lands and Resources manager of the City and Borough of Juneau, says recent surveys of Juneau's housing...