a special KCAW series on affordable housing solutions
In Sitka, housing is expensive and hard to find. That can have all kinds of consequences for the community. What’s being done to help?
“Every single year housing is a crisis. It’s a tremendous problem: availability, quality of the stock, affordability. There aren’t enough buildings. They cost too much, and there’s way too many buildings that people shouldn’t be living in.”
-Randy Hughey, Sitka Community Land Trust
Portable, Sitka-built ‘mini homes’ could help regional housing crunch
In many rural Alaska communities, the high cost of construction can lead to housing shortages, unsafe living conditions and overcrowding. A new “mini-home” project is working to tackle the problem in Yakutat by building the houses in Sitka where costs are lower and then shipping them. The construction company behind the project hopes its idea spreads.
A tiny home community could be a new start for Sitka’s chronically homeless
Despite decades of efforts, Sitka has no homeless shelter. The latest attempt by the Sitka Homeless Coalition fell through after the organization couldn’t find a space to rent. Now, the Coalition is turning to a possible tiny home community instead to help tackle chronic homelessness.
Community land trust helps young, single mother build a home of her own
For many young Sitkans, buying a house feels like an impossible dream. But for one single mother, a community land trust is turning the dream of home ownership into a more affordable reality.
