A major supplier of affordable housing in Anchorage just got a bit more help to meet the demand for new homes.
Cook Inlet Housing Authority has won a $6 million Indian Housing block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cook Inlet CEO Gabe Layman says it was a competitive grant and the funds are in addition to its regular Indian Housing funds.
“We’re going to be using this to construct 43 units of housing, about half and half – family housing and elder housing,” he said. “And three of those units will be designated for home ownership.”
High-ranking HUD officials are visiting Alaska this week and made the announcement in Anchorage.
Layman can’t yet say where in Anchorage the development will be, because the organization is finalizing negotiations.
Cook Inlet Housing has built about 2000 rental units in Southcentral Alaska over the past 20 years, making it the main provider of affordable housing in Anchorage. It’s a tribal housing authority, but it serves other low- and moderate-income Alaskans, too.
“We’ll use our tribal housing funds, and we’ll use that to catalyze a development, to attract additional resources, and then to build a development that serves everyone in our community,” he said. “In that way, we’re able to build more homes for our Alaska Native and American Indian residents here in Anchorage, but at the same time, we’re able to provide housing opportunities for everyone in our community.”
About a third of Cook Inlet Housing’s tenants are Indigenous Alaskans or American Indians, Layman said.
The grant was part of a $150 million distribution to tribal housing authorities nationwide.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
