Anchorage has a housing shortage. In recent years, we've seen just a few hundred units developed annually. The data shows we need to get to a total of 1,000 units built and rehabilitated each year over the next decade to fix up our aging housing stock and meet community needs.
“If we care about building a strong workforce, keeping young people here, and seeing fewer people sleeping outside, we need more housing," said Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. “10,000 homes is our bold strategy to bring a lot more housing to Anchorage."
The Municipality is taking on everything from new property tax incentives to get more housing built to new software that will take permit applications online to getting $5 million out the door to get more people in Anchorage housed. These actions are all about more housing and more people housed.
"Because of our collective efforts, what I can tell you is that Cook Inlet Housing is actively working on a number of projects that would add hundreds of units of housing in our community," said Gabe Layman, Cook Inlet Housing Authority President/CEO. "We're grateful for the partnership with Mayor LaFrance's administration and this Assembly. That partnership is going to begin producing benefits as soon as this summer with new housing production."
"We've got projects in the pipeline right now that are in design phase," said developer Shaun Debenham, Debenham, LLC. “As this property tax incentive goes through, we're excited to get the shovel in the ground and start adding to the 10,000 units that need to be built."
10,000 Homes in Ten Years strategy
Our housing crisis is years in the making — we won't solve it overnight or with a single action. We need to commit to a series of changes over time. And that's exactly what Mayor LaFrance, Assembly Members, and partners are doing to bring more housing to Anchorage.
Our strategy addresses four main problems we're working to solve:
- Our local rules and regulations make it harder and more expensive to build. We can remove red tape and make it easier to build while still preserving the things we need, like health and safety requirements and public process.
- Housing doesn't pencil! The cost of building is so high in Anchorage that housing (multi-family housing, in particular) doesn't get built unless we can add additional incentives to the equation.
- Municipal processes can create barriers to new development and rehabilitation. We can be a better partner through efficient and predictable permitting.
"During the transition, one of our recommendations was to hire a building official and to create an executive presence, with the goal of creating a culture of getting to 'yes'," said LaFrance Transition housing co-lead Sheldon Fisher. "We're already seeing that culture of getting to 'yes'."
- Anchorage has a significant number of vacant and dilapidated buildings. Our aging buildings need attention and investment to address blight so everyone has a safe place to live.
Recent action includes:
Making it cheaper and easier to build multi-family housing:
- On Tuesday, April 8, the Mayor and Assembly Members Brawley, Martinez, and Rivera brought forward a new multi-family property tax incentive to address the financial "gap" that keeps developers from building housing with 8 units or more. The goal: More multi-family housing gets built in Anchorage.
"We know we can't get the housing we need with just a few units here or there," said Assembly Member Anna Brawley. "We really need to be thinking bigger scale. Our tax incentive ordinance is a thoughtful targeted incentive for new multi-family housing."
- In February, the Mayor and Assembly paused design standards, which are aesthetic requirements that can significantly raise the cost of multifamily housing. If we want more housing and different types of housing, we need to try new things that make it easier to build.
- Streamlining Municipal processes for permitting: New software is coming to the Permit Center! New software will allow online applications, save time, and enable everyone to more easily track application status.
- Turning the tide on homelessness:
- Later this month, we'll start distributing over $5M in federal dollars to keep people housed and get people housed.
- And we're looking to build 50 micro housing units this summer, perhaps with your help. Keep an eye out for more information.
- Bringing together developers, labor, and other partners to get creative and move impactful projects forward. Big problems like housing don't get solved by one person or one organization. By getting stakeholders in the room together to talk through sticky problems we build trust and hammer out real solutions. At a press availability this morning, the Mayor, Assembly members, and partners from the building and development community spoke to the changes they're making together.
"I've worked in housing for more than two decades. I've been engaged in that time in a lot of talk. Today, I see a shared urgency for housing development in Anchorage," said Carol Gore, LaFrance Transition housing co-lead. "Our shared goal is for developers to see Anchorage as a good place to invest in housing."
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Strategy: 10,000 Homes in 10 Years
Contact: Berett Wilber berett.wilber@anchorage.gov 1 (907) 343-9641