Clarise Larson

Juneau high school students are getting real-world building experience while creating much-needed affordable homes in the community. That’s thanks to a house build program that’s a partnership between the Juneau Housing Trust and Juneau School District.

On Wednesday, Raegan Adams fed pink fluffy insulation into a machine in the garage of a partially built home in Lemon Creek. The machine pushed the insulation through a long spiraling tube through the house and into its attic. She and her classmates are building the house she’s standing in.

Adams is a junior at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé and one of the students enrolled in the district’s House Build program.

The district has offered many house building projects to students on and off, dating back to the 1970s. The program has seen multiple iterations over the years. Students who take the semester-long class get to learn hands-on construction skills by building new, energy-efficient homes that then go back into the community. Adams says she was hesitant to take the class at first, but now she’s glad she did. 

“I think it’s a very important class that teaches skills everyone should have. Like, I’ve been telling my mom about stuff we do in the class. And she’s like, ‘Oh, you can do this to our house next,’” she said. 

Students in this class are currently finishing up the sixth house in a small neighborhood of homes constructed by the program in Lemon Creek. Soon, they’ll begin laying the foundation for the seventh. The houses are located just past the Dzantik’i Heeni campus.

The City and Borough of Juneau made the land available for sale to the Juneau Housing Trust in 2017. The trust manages the land through a community land trust and works to ensure the homes can be purchased by low and middle-income community members. 

Tamara Rowcroft is the board vice president of the Juneau Housing Trust. She said housing geared for low and middle-income buyers is unique, but desperately needed. 

“I’ve been working in affordable housing for about 35 years here in Juneau. I lived here as a kid,” she said. “I know how hard it is to get housing that’s affordable.’

For the past two years, Juneau has had the highest average sale price for a single-family home in the state, according to a study by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. 

Nathan Dutton is the school district’s career and technical education coordinator. He says offering alternative learning opportunities is crucial for students who may be looking for another path to a well-paying job after graduating that isn’t a traditional four-year degree.

“We have seen a drop in tradesmen throughout the nation, so being able to make this skillset available to our students is so important,” he said. 

He said the house build program lets students explore if a trades career is for them.

“They’re getting amazing real-world experience that in other places you typically have to pay for or get accepted into a program,” Dutton said. 

Jace Kihlmire is a senior at JDHS. He took the class to learn more skills to use when working at his dad’s construction company. But, he said, the takeaways from the class go beyond that. It gives him the confidence to take on what used to be difficult tasks.  

“It applies to future careers as well as home life,” he said. “Like ‘oh, I put a hole in my drywall.’ Oh, cool. I know how to patch it up. Or ‘oh, I need to re-shingle my roof.’ Well, I know how to do that.”

And, though he’s learned a lot of skills during the class, he said he definitely has a favorite: 

“Everything is fun about drywall,” he said. “As much as I hate removing it, installing it is the best.”

The class hopes to finish construction by the end of the year. The trust hopes to put the home on the market soon.

More than a dozen people without permanent housing living in Juneau’s largest unhoused encampment will be forced to leave on Friday morning, ahead of the season’s first expected snowfall. 

The City and Borough of Juneau gave notice to the people camping on Teal Street in the Mendenhall Valley earlier this week. The notices says the city is prohibiting camping in the area due to winter maintenance and safety concerns. 

Right now, the street is lined with more than a dozen campsites. Some campers don’t want to leave.

“I assumed that they would let us stay through the winter. I didn’t anticipate them doing this now — it just seemed like the worst timing,” said Darian Bliss, who’s been living in the Teal Street area in a makeshift shelter since about May. 

People without housing in Juneau set up camp here because it’s close to social services and other resources provided by the Glory Hall and St. Vincent de Paul. 

“I think it’s the safest, best place out of everywhere in town, because you’re right across from the homeless shelter anyway, and so I don’t know where a better place could possibly be,” he said. 

Bliss said he’s frustrated with the timing of the city’s eviction. He doesn’t want to have to uproot his life again, even as winter comes. He’s spent the last week or so insulating his campsite, and recently installed a wooden door with a lock. 

Campers like Bliss have few options for where they can stay. One option is the city’s cold weather emergency shelter, which opened for the season in mid-October. It’s located in a warehouse in Thane, about a mile from downtown and about nine miles across town from the services on Teal Street. 

The shelter accepts anyone who comes in search of a place to sleep at night, as long as they aren’t disruptive to other patrons. City officials say it’s a stopgap and meant to be a last resort for unhoused people when the weather gets cold. 

Bliss said he doesn’t plan on going there. He doesn’t like how crowded it is and the distance from resources. 

“I don’t like going out there at all. I just stay perfectly fine here,” he said. 

Logan Henkins works at the Glory Hall shelter. He was playing music and handing out hot chocolate and coffee to people who passed by on Wednesday afternoon.  

“I’m just out here this morning trying to touch base with as many people as I can touch on base with about the extended services that St. Vincent de Paul is offering on Friday to catch the people who are being displaced,” he said. 

St. Vincent de Paul operates the city’s emergency shelter. In light of the clearing, the shelter will open earlier on Friday and offer a meal.

He’s not the only one trying to help out. Claire Richardson stood outside her car next to a campsite on Teal Street, waiting to help a woman she met the day before move her belongings from an encampment and into a family member’s apartment. 

“You start to realize that people (are) living on the margins, and the snow is coming, and really, I don’t know what they’re going to do, and there’s a lot of stuff here,” she said. 

Richardson is with ReSisters, a local group of women who work for social justice and equality. She said when she heard about the encampments being cleared, she felt drawn to help the people who were about to be displaced. 

“It’s going to start snowing here in a few days, and the thought of me being safe in my home, sipping my hot coffee and knowing that people are living like this. Well, it’s just hard to sleep at night,” she said. 

Other groups in town are helping out too, like the Haa Tóoch Lichéesh Coalition, which is asking the community to offer storage space or funds to those being displaced. 

Deputy Police Chief Krag Campbell said the police department plans to have officers arrive at 8 a.m. on Friday to ask people to leave the area. Then at 9 a.m., they’ll start throwing people’s belongings away. He encouraged campers to pack up their belongings beforehand.

“Hopefully, we’ve given them ample time, ample notice, and they can start making those arrangements to go somewhere else,” he said. 

Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the city will continue to monitor the area after Friday in the event that people set up camp again. 

Tuesday is Veterans Day and there are several ceremonies honoring veterans in Juneau. 

The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the Southeast Alaska Native Veterans group will host its annual Veterans Day ceremony and luncheon starting at 11 a.m. at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall.

It will feature performances by the Elders and Yaaw Tei Yi Dance Groups and keynote remarks by Col. Jeff Philippart of the U.S. Air Force and Col. Erica Iverson of the U.S. Army. 

Tlingit and Haida President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson said honoring veterans shouldn’t be limited to just one day a year. 

“Their example strengthens our tribe and inspires our young people to lead with integrity and care,” he said. “We just want to continue to lift them up with the support and the recognition and the resources that they deserve every day.”

The VFW Taku Post 5559 and the American Legion will also host their annual public ceremony at Centennial Hall at 11 a.m., followed by a dinner at 5 p.m. at the American Legion’s lodge in Auke Bay.

Duff Mitchell is a veteran of the Army National Guard and Commander of American Legion Post 25. He said it’s important to reflect on the impact of veterans’ service. 

“It doesn’t matter what political end of the spectrum you are, but freedom of speech and your other freedoms are very well protected in this country,” he said. “And, veterans have a lot to say of why we have those freedoms here.”

The Juneau chapter of Veterans for Peace also plans to host an Armistice Day ceremony outside the state Capitol building at 10:30 a.m. 

Tlinigit and Haida is also offering free coffee to veterans on Tuesday at its Aan Hít retail store and coffee shop on Franklin Street. 

In this newscast:

• Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is among 40 airports across the country forced to slash air traffic by 10% starting Friday as the government shutdown becomes the longest in U.S. history.
• The Juneau Assembly is facing some tough decisions in the coming months. That’s after Juneau voters approved tax cuts this fall, leaving an estimated $12 million annual hole in the city’s budget. Last night, Assembly members discussed what that will mean for the level of services the city can provide moving forward.
• The state of Alaska is moving forward with a controversial plan to build a brand-new ferry terminal north of Juneau that it says will have short- and long-term benefits. But the idea has stirred pushback in communities who rely on the ferry system to access healthcare, air travel and more in Juneau. An advisory board charged with overseeing the ferry system’s planning process has also raised concerns.
• The Municipality of Anchorage is set to own its city hall, rather than rent it, after the Assembly approved a purchase agreement Tuesday night. In total, the city is authorized to spend about $35 million dollars on both the building and renovations to the roof and fire systems.

The municipal tax cuts approved by Juneau voters in this fall’s election are expected to create a $6.4 million hole in the city’s budget this fiscal year. But that’s only scraping the surface. 

Next year — and every year moving forward — the city will face an estimated $12 million revenue loss. That’s due to the tax exemption on food and utilities and cap on the city’s property tax rate that voters passed.

This year, the funding gap is smaller because the city is already partially through this fiscal year. The new food and utility tax exemptions take effect starting Nov. 20 and the property tax rate cap will begin next year.

During a finance committee meeting on Wednesday night, Assembly members began to discuss how to move forward. Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said the decisions ahead won’t be easy. 

“I think that when people understand the magnitude of the decisions made in the last election, there is going to be a little bit of whiplash,” she said. 

For the immediate $6.4 million hole this fiscal year, Assembly members agreed on Wednesday to absorb the revenue shortfall using interest earnings from last fiscal year that came in higher than expected. They opted against implementing any broad service reductions — for now. 

Angie Flick, the city’s finance director, said it gives the Assembly more time to figure out how to address the recurring shortfall beginning next fiscal year.   

“We have the opportunity to take some time to make thoughtful decisions about reductions,” she said. 

Flick and city staff floated a few directions the Assembly could take to fill the recurring gap — though no major decisions were made. She offered options like implementing a blanket reduction in funding across all city departments, hiring freezes, cutting services and major line-item expenses, or increasing revenue. 

The Assembly also agreed to distribute the remainder of the grant funding that the city withheld from local organizations before the election. The city originally withheld the funds out of concerns about the revenue loss if the ballot propositions passed. 

Assembly member and finance committee chair Christine Woll advocated for providing the full funding promised. 

“I think it plays into this idea that our community grants are philanthropy, that we’re doing this to be nice,” she said. “We’re doing this because these are needed services in our communities that others can do more efficiently and better than we can.” 

City staff and the Assembly plan to evaluate the city’s finances in the coming months and develop a plan to engage the public as it moves forward with any potential reductions to services. 

Disclosure: KTOO is one of the organizations that will receive previously withheld grant funding from the City and Borough of Juneau. 

In this newscast:

• The U. S. Coast Guard may briefly be unable to hear distress calls in Southeast Alaska for 3-5 minute intervals this week.
•  Tenants living in Juneau’s historic Telephone Hill neighborhood had until this past weekend to move out. But some didn’t, and several are now suing the city to reverse the evictions. At the same time, city officials are discussing the next steps for the downtown neighborhood’s redevelopment into new, denser housing.
• A controversial higher education compact from the Trump administration has sparked a petition from several University of Alaska unions, who say they’re worried about political overreach stifling academic freedom.
• Alaska’s state-owned economic development and finance corporation is committing another $50 million to the controversial Ambler Road Project. Earlier this month, the board of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority unanimously voted to make the money available to support the 211-mile project, which would connect the Dalton Highway to an undeveloped, mining region near the Brooks Range.