Over a hundred people attended a summit that the North Slope Borough housing experts held in Anchorage last week to discuss challenges and best practices for building homes in Arctic communities.
In Alaska, the rate of overcrowded homes is double the national average, according to a 2018 assessment. And the North Slope is losing homes to dilapidation faster than the new ones are being built, said Jack Frantz, director of the borough housing department.
“There's a sense of urgency and the need for building more homes on the North Slope,” Frantz said. “You also hear about it when you have a young adult that wants to stay on the North Slope, but has to move down to one of the lower cities just because of a lack of housing.”
The region – which is predominantly Alaska Native – is in a unique situation. The construction season is short, and the workforce is often hard to find, said Pearl Brower, president and CEO at Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, which offers some construction services in the region. The remote geography and unreliable weather also makes shipping materials challenging and expensive, she said.
“The cost of building is exorbitant, which is a huge barrier,” Brower said.
Still, Frantz said that in the oil-rich economy, residents are interested in building and buying houses.
“There are quite a few individuals on the North Slope that are financially astute,” he said. “They are able to go to a bank and get approved for a loan the size that they need.”
Frantz said the point of the housing summit was to connect potential home buyers with resources for building homes: things like funding and financing opportunities, affordable ways to ship supplies, and contractors who are located in the region or willing to come up.
To cut the cost of shipping to the country’s most northern region, participants discussed how residents and organizations can order supplies together, Frantz said.
“When you talk about economies of scale, generally, just (the) more you order, the bigger discount you get,” Frantz said. “We talked about possibly building something like a co-op, so that we can grab orders of lumber from residents or entities, band them together and see if we can create a cost savings.”
Frantz said that in many North Slope communities, more than half of the homes are owned by residents, with no mortgage. To use that equity for another loan, residents need an appraiser, and it can take months to wait for one, Frantz said,
“That's one area that we discussed and one area we are actively looking into – how to get an appraiser up here in a more timely manner,” he said. “If it takes months for one resident, we need to work on that system.”
One of the panels focused on skilled labor and training. Iḷisaġvik College President Justina Wilhelm spoke about the college’s mission to develop a workforce to meet that need.
“The convening created a platform of local employers, training and education entities as well as contractors to network and listen to the various needs and identify ways we can support the North Slope Borough's housing crisis,” she said.
Following the summit, Frantz said that the borough plans to put together a guide listing banks that work with buyers in the region and contractors who are enthusiastic to come up. They also plan to present a report on the summit during Kivgiq, a celebratory mid-winter festival in Utqiaġvik, and at future village visits.
“We're going to be traveling to the villages and sharing what we learned during the housing summit, giving options with the housing resources guide, and also listening to our residents,” Frantz said. “There may have been stuff that we missed, and we want to know what those items could have been.”
