Haines has a seasonal economy and a seasonal rental market to go with it. Some year-round residents dodge rent by living simply in summer and house sitting for snowbirds in winter.
Jedediah Blum-Evitts opens the door to a cozy A-frame outside of town, with a tawny house cat close on his heels.
“That’s Edna,” he says as he walks from the entryway into the kitchen. “Edna’s the resident cat.”
Snow is thick on the roof and spruce trees, but heat rolls out of the oven. It smells like cooking meat. This isn’t his house and Edna isn’t his cat, but she’s the reason Blum-Evitts is staying here this month.
“She’s probably the main reason,” he said. “There’s some house things to watch over as well, but kitty cats need attention.”
He checks on a mound of ground turkey and sticks it back in the oven for a few minutes. It’s Edna’s dinner.
Blum-Evitts is in his late 30s and is somewhat of a veteran house-sitter: he’s been bouncing from place to place for about a decade.
“It can be anything from a couple of days if you’re there just because of a pet. Or if it’s winter and you’re there to actually watch over the house, then it could be one month, two months,” he said. “Some people get a whole season. I usually try to piece together two weeks or more to make it worth the move from house to house to house.”
Housing is tight across Southeast Alaska and Haines is no exception. Blum-Evitts already had to move four times this year. But he often doesn’t pay rent, and sometimes owners pay him to stay and look after their place. His next house sit usually comes on the heels of a good recommendation from his last gig. It’s a lifestyle choice that lets him get by on a part-time job at the local distillery, and it isn’t uncommon in Haines.
The economy here is largely seasonal. There are about twice as many jobs in the summer, and locals’ number one priority when it comes to economic development is more full-time work. Seasonal and part-time workers use a winter house sit gig — or a couple of them strung together — as a way to stretch their paychecks until work starts again in Spring.
Margaret Friedenauer directs the Haines Economic Development Corporation. She says the seasonal economy also makes renting property as short-term vacation rental more lucrative than offering it as year-round housing.
“There are a lot of property owners transitioning from rental housing to vacation rentals,” Friedenauer said. “So that may mean that there are not as many rentals available on the market especially for year-round rentals.”
Campgrounds fill up with summer workers that evidently don’t mind living in drafty cars and tents. That kind of marginal housing isn’t as easy in the winter.
Luckily, that’s when some homeowners head south to escape the dark, cold days. Whether it’s a couple of weeks’ vacation or a true snowbird situation, many people ask someone like Blum-Evitts to feed the fish and make sure the pipes don’t freeze.
He says it’s mostly worked out.
“Right now my calendar is not booked for the winter yet, so I’m still hoping to find things for the second half,” he said. “So [it] usually works out well, but I’ll never know. I’ve slept on a few friends couches for a few days here, there.”
Edna crawls from his arms to nestle around his shoulders. In an off-the-books economy where word-of-mouth is key, this looks like another good recommendation.
Checking the online classified there are slim pickings around town. There’s only one spot up for rent on the community website: a one bedroom and the owner is asking $850 a month.
