Housing

The average sales price for a single-family home in Juneau was nearly $510,000 in 2023 — which makes it the second year in a row that Juneau had the most expensive average in Alaska. That’s according to a study released by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development this month.

Brian Holst, the executive director of the Juneau Economic Development Council, said that doesn’t surprise him. 

“It is not good for the working folk of Juneau, but it isn’t a big surprise because Juneau’s housing costs have historically been high,” he said. “I’m not surprised to see us near or at the top.”

Rents are high, too. Juneau ranked fifth in the state for the highest average rental costs for a two-bedroom, at $1,561 a month. That’s a 5% increase from the year before. 

Other necessities are also costing more, too. 

According to the study, which comes out annually, Juneau’s costs for things like health care and groceries are similar to places like Seattle and San Francisco. Overall, the study cited Juneau’s cost of living as just shy of 28% above the national average. 

Holst said there are a lot of reasons things cost more in Juneau, like land availability and the cost to ship things here. For housing, he said one big factor that often gets overlooked is the demographic changes that are happening in Juneau. 

“Our aging population occupies a lot of housing. When you look at Juneau over the last 10 years, basically our population is about the same as it was 10 years ago, but we have a lot more senior citizens,” he said. 

Holst said that as Juneau’s population continues to age and stay in their homes, prices will keep increasing. 

“The changing demographics are limiting the supply of housing. So, the price of housing goes up as the supply is limited,”  he said. “Simply, we have not built enough housing to keep up with the demand.”

Assembly member Ella Adkison said there’s no one right way to fix the problem — or she would have already pursued it. 

“I don’t think a one-size-fits-all option, but I think we have to be doing frankly everything we can do,” she said. 

Recently, the Assembly increased funding for a city loan program for purchasing mobile homes. And it continues to put money toward the city’s affordable housing fund, which gives money to developers to help get housing projects off the ground. 

Adkison said that, as a person in her 20s, she knows firsthand how the lack of housing affects young people in Juneau. 

“I do get it. I have so many friends who are in really tight spots, and it’s a problem that every Assembly member is aware of but I’m acutely aware of,” she said. “It’s not something that will happen quickly, and I can’t promise next year, ‘boom it will be affordable to live here.’”

But she said things are happening, and she has hope those efforts will start to pay off soon.

Petersburg has a tight housing market – last year, a survey found the town would need an additional 300 homes in the next decade. But a new local program aims to make it easier for people to add small homes, also known as Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, to their property. The Borough of Petersburg has developed detailed, pre-permitted blueprints that are available to residents free of charge.

Community Development Director Liz Cabrera said she hopes it provides people with affordable, doable housing opportunities.

“When you’re trying to address housing situations, it’s multifaceted, so there’s no single solution, she said. “And in this case, we’re trying to make something that takes a lot of the upfront work out of the picture and be able to get someone a little bit further along in getting the project done.”

Cabrera said when you put a tiny home on a lot next to a larger house, you can use the already-installed infrastructure, like roads, sewer and water, of the larger home. That saves a lot of money.

“What it does really well, I think, is that it addresses the issue of the cost of infrastructure development and it gives you an option for increasing the number of housing units without having to build out your infrastructure,” she said.

Cabrera worked with two local architecture firms to develop the plans for four different tiny homes, which range in size from about 350 to 650 square feet. The houses are designed for Petersburg’s climate, and built to the town’s code. Cabrera said she hopes the houses will be used in a variety of ways.

“Just providing a different option for housing, and that can be multi generational, it could be a rental income, it could be having older parents aging in place – there’s lots of options there,” she said. “So really, it’s up to the property owner, and it just gives them a leg up in that process.”

Anyone who lives in Petersburg’s Service Area 1 can apply for the plans. Cabrera said homes built outside the service area would open the borough up to liability, since the borough can’t enforce code outside Service Area 1. Applicants will pay a building permit fee once the borough confirms that zoning codes are met. Cabrera said the borough used money from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, to fund the development of the plans. She said now that the plans are completed, the program will essentially be free to maintain.

Cabrera said that while she can’t be sure, she thinks this plan is the first of its kind in the state.

Juneau’s former downtown homeless shelter has been converted into seven affordable housing units, each with its own bathroom and kitchen.

Organizers said construction came in under budget, and they hope this project will inspire other people who own downtown property to create affordable housing. 

One new resident, Mike Ricker, moved in on Monday. He hasn’t had a place to call his own in a long time. 

“It’s a happy time,” he said. “A very happy time.”

So far, he’s tacked a University of Oregon Ducks blanket to the wall, set up a bed, and hung colorful and starched flannels in his closet.

He said he’s also excited about the view from his apartment, which overlooks part of downtown and the cruise ship docks. 

“I can open this one, I can see the ships all the time,” Ricker said. “I like that.”

Nine people are moving in, starting this week. All have struggled with housing stability and worked with organizations in the Juneau Housing First Coalition, according to Glory Hall Deputy Director Kaia Quinto. 

“I think we really tried to make it so that people who live here are people that wouldn’t get a chance — the normal landlords wouldn’t rent to, normally,” she said.

That could be because residents have felonies on their record, previous evictions, or bad credit. 

Quinto has worked at the Glory Hall for a few years, and she said seeing this building be ready for move-in is a big payoff for her.

“I’m excited to see them just be able to live not on the street,” Quinto said.

Former Glory Hall Director Mariya Lovishchuk said they were able to fully fund the project with grants from the city and organizations like the Rasmuson Foundation and the Murdock Charitable Trust. 

The Glory Hall closed the downtown shelter and soup kitchen in 2021 when its new facility near the airport opened. It took nearly a year for the city to grant a permit to turn the old building into affordable housing due to initial objections to building more housing in a landslide and avalanche hazard zone.

But Lovishchuk said once they got approved, the process was smooth. 

“Working with the building department on this building, after we got the permit, it has been delightful,” Lovishchuk said. 

She said the Glory Hall budgeted around $1.7 million for the project, but she expects costs to come in under that amount. Construction took less than a year. The building’s downstairs also generates revenue as commercial space. It’s occupied by Jellyfish Donuts. 

“I really want people to get inspired and be like, ‘We should make housing in all of these buildings,’” she said.

The rent for each unit ranges from $1000 to $1300 a month, including utilities.

The executive director of the Glory Hall homeless shelter in Juneau, Mariya Lovishchuk, is stepping down from her role after more than a decade of leadership.

In an interview on Thursday, she said that although she won’t be in charge anymore, she’s not going anywhere. 

“Well, I think this is why it’s not newsworthy — I think I’m gonna try to do the kind of stuff that I’ve been doing. I just don’t want to be in charge anymore,” she said, laughing. 

Lovishchuk began her role as executive director back in 2009. And, while serving there and with the Juneau Housing First Coalition, she’s been busy. 

She helped move the shelter from downtown to a larger location in the Mendenhall Valley. She also helped turn the old shelter into affordable housing units, and she helped develop the Housing First facility in Lemon Creek. 

That facility, called Forget-Me-Not-Manor, is operated by the Glory Hall and provides permanent supportive housing for people who’ve been homeless for a year or more and have a disability or chronic health condition. Currently, the manor is in the final stages of fundraising to build 28 more units there, which will bring the total to 92.

Lovishchuk said a lot has changed in 15 years, but one thing really sticks out to her. 

“I think the big shift for us just was realizing how critically important permanent supportive housing is,” she said. “Switching from providing sandwiches and cots to really thinking about systemic issues, and really focusing on the development and operating of housing.”

Lovishchuk said she hopes the Glory Hall’s next director will come ready to collaborate with other groups in Juneau that are trying to get people into housing. The Glory Hall is part of the Juneau Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, a partnership of local agencies and organizations working to find solutions to get people out of homelessness and into stable housing. 

“I think Juneau is really unique in terms of how many organizations and partners work on projects together, and just how collaborative our efforts are,” she said. “And, I think it has really had amazing results. So, I really hope that continues.”

Lovishchuk said those partnerships — and working with the people who come into the shelter — have been the highlights of her career.

“I have so many favorite parts of this job,” she said. “I think just like doing something so meaningful for so many years, it just like really adds to your life. It’s just — it’s so enriching, I think, personally and professionally.”

The search for her replacement is already underway. She said she is confident that the right person is out there who can move the organization forward. 

Housing is tight in Juneau, and that can make it hard for low or middle-income families who want to settle down. To help address that, the Juneau Assembly is increasing the funding in a city loan program for purchasing mobile homes. 

Since 2016, the city has partnered with True North Federal Credit Union to provide low-interest loans for up to 50% of the down payment of mobile homes, also called manufactured homes. Loan recipients are on the hook for the other 50% and have five years to pay it back.

Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs is the chair of the Assembly’s Lands Housing and Economic Development Committee. She said offering programs like this is just another creative way the Assembly is trying to help people afford housing. 

“I think it’s super important that we provide a variety of tools, so it’s just biting at the apple every way we can,” she said. 

The loans were previously available for up to $10,000 at 1% interest. But, at a meeting on Monday, the Assembly bumped that up to $20,000. 

Hughes-Skandijs said for many people and families, purchasing a traditional house in Juneau just isn’t financially possible anymore. But, purchasing manufactured homes can be a solid alternative. 

According to a city assessment report, the median sales price of a mobile home on land in 2023 was just under $172,000. The sales price for a single-family residence was more than double at nearly $530,000.

“It’s a way of people getting into homes that they’re actually owning, so if there’s something we can do to make it easier for someone to get into a home, we’d love to help on that front,” Hughes-Skandijs said.

The program is funded with money from the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. City Manager Katie Koester said since the program’s inception, it’s been underutilized — only 14 loans have been taken out. She said she hoped that changes and more people take advantage of it. 

“A lot of times a manufactured home is a young person or a family’s first entry into home ownership,” she said. “So we’re really interested in being able to make sure that they’re able to achieve that, and nothing has gotten any less expensive.”

The Assembly also changed the name of the program to be called the Manufactured Home Down Payment Assistance Program. It was previously called the Mobile Home Down Payment Assistance Program. Hughes-Skandijs said the term “mobile home” can have a negative stigma attached to it.

Ketchikan’s main homeless shelter, which had recently been serving more than 200 participants, will close for good this week. The surprise announcement came from First City Homeless Services, the organization that runs the shelter. The organization shared a letter Monday from its board of directors, saying that after 16 years of operation, they’re shutting down.

In the letter, the Board wrote that “continual obstructive behavior” from the Ketchikan City Council led them to the decision.

CEO Deborah Asper said from the time they moved into the city-owned building, they have struggled to keep up with shifting expectations.

“Just constant, you know, ‘Do this, you’re doing this wrong, do this,’” Asper said. “I mean, from what door we enter into, to calling the fire marshal on a building that their departments developed, to the City Council members coming into the building and telling me that I was going to get fired.”

The city had requested that the shelter begin offering 24/7 services and invited them to move into the Park Avenue building, which they did in August 2022. But the building’s proximity to both businesses and neighborhoods quickly created tensions with the community, which Asper has acknowledged.

The group then found a new location, the old VFW building, which they planned to renovate. That new building wouldn’t have been ready for move-in until at least 2026. And back in March, the City Council voted to end the shelter’s lease at its current location this July.

Asper said they looked for temporary relocation options, but couldn’t find anything available to meet their needs. She also said the Board does not want to go back to “warehousing,” or giving people a place to sleep without providing supportive services.

“So you’re keeping them alive to just live this marginalized existence. Rather than keeping them alive, and then working with them to move out of their current situations,” Asper explained. “That model is no longer funded. That model is no longer used. It actually perpetuates all of the issues surrounding homelessness.”

Asper developed a three-tiered model of work and life-skills training for her participants, which she said has been hugely successful, exceeding their own expectations. In the letter, the shelter’s Board said that the model could have effectively addressed Ketchikan’s homelessness needs, but the city “is not yet ready to be a leader in this sector.”

The organization will be ending its operations by this Friday. It’s unclear what will become of their hundreds of participants.