Housing advocates look to multigenerational living as a possible solution to Anchorage housing crunch

Lydia Johnson walked up the stairs of a fourplex on a recent Thursday and opened the door to two dogs, Romper and Raven, her daughter Sophie Gustafson, and her aunt Kirsten Gustafson — who lives directly across the hall.

Johnson and Kirsten Gustafson own the fourplex in Fairview, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. Four generations of their family have lived in the building since Johnson’s mom and Gustafson bought it a decade ago.

Johnson said the community environment is appealing to her.

“It’s so nice to have the person across the hall for me that I can go to and be like, this thing happened at work. Or, how do I deal with this? And just the people that you know do love and care about you and support you,” she said.

They share everything from produce to vehicles, and take care of each other when sick.

Johnson said it’s not uncommon for someone in the fourplex to need medical care and being so close makes it easy to help. Gustafson agreed.

“We take care of each other if we have surgeries,” Johnson said. “Runs to the emergency room, she’s taken me a few times,” Gustafson added.

When rooms aren’t being utilized by family members, Johnson and Gustafson rent to friends, which helps offset costs.

Finding affordable housing in Anchorage is a challenge, and housing experts are looking for solutions. One idea is making it easier for people to live in multigenerational homes.

Devin Kelly works on housing initiatives at Cook Inlet Housing Authority, and said the city hasn’t built enough housing in the last decade to keep up with demand. And housing for certain groups is in particularly short supply.

“But especially housing for young people, housing for seniors, people who want to age in place,” Kelly said.

Multigenerational living allows people to balance community and privacy, and have access to live-in support, like elder care. Anchorage has a shortage of affordable child care, and Kelly calls the potential to live with a built-in child care giver is a “huge deal.”

Kelly said the definition of multigenerational housing is flexible, and isn’t limited to family members.

“I would define it as at least two adult households living together,” Kelly said. “So that might mean adults with little kids or teenage kids and their parents, or just adults and their parents, to me. It doesn’t have to be a certain number of generations, or again, it doesn’t have to be a certain number of people related to each other.”

Multigenerational living is common in many cultures, and Kelly said there’s a lot housing experts can learn about the model from those communities in Anchorage.

Lucy Hansen is the founder and CEO of the Polynesian Association of Alaska, a nonprofit that supports the Pacific Islander community. She said multigenerational living is common in her culture.

Hansen said that in the Pacific Islander culture, it’s standard for children to take care of their elderly parents. And multigenerational living allows them to be surrounded by family, which Hansen said makes them feel included.

“It helps elders be happy because they know they’re important to their family,” she said.

Hansen said it’s not as common for young people to live in multigenerational homes, because many want their own space to grow independently.

Hansen said she thinks Anchorage would benefit from more multigenerational homes.

The city is in a better position to support new developments of multigenerational housing after Anchorage officials made a number of changes to the housing code. The Anchorage Assembly passed the HOME Initiative in June, which basically eliminates single family zoning. They’ve also increased where accessory dwelling units can be added, and eliminated off-street parking requirements which gives developers more flexibility when building.

Cook Inlet Housing Authority was one of five entities behind an AARP grant-funded initiative this year that challenged residential designers and architects to design multigenerational homes in Anchorage neighborhoods in effort to increase density in traditional single-family neighborhoods. Designs had to be built on a corner or infill lot and required 2-4 units- at least one accessible.

Three designs were submitted, and Kelly said they address various community needs.

“These designs are doing an interesting job of balancing community and privacy, where you have your own space, but you also have access to live in supports, to childcare, to elder care and to the types of community resources that maybe can sometimes feel sort of far away if you’re living on your own,” Kelly said.

One of the entries was from Clark Yarrington, a residential designer who owns FRamE Residential Design in Anchorage.

For the initiative, he designed four single-family homes on adjacent lots. Each lot holds a small house and a main house which have 2-4 bedrooms each. The small homes have separated flex rooms, which could be used for a variety of things, like an office or overflow space.

He said cost was a big factor in his design.

“It’s really tough right now, because, you know, since 2020 the cost of materials has spiked, and it’s just made all of these projects so much more difficult to do,” Yarrington said. “It’s something that affects everybody and you can’t get away from it no matter what.”

The cost for Yarrington’s full design was $2,049,500, nearly four times the average single-family home price in Anchorage of $524,000. He said building multigenerational homes won’t outright solve the housing problem, but it might help.

The designs presented weren’t cheap, but Kelly said there are a lot of financial benefits to multigenerational living. She said an owner might choose to rent an accessible unit, which would help someone who wants to age in place but can’t afford to build, ultimately lessening the financial burden on both parties.

“It could help people close the financial gap in terms of trying to make something work for their family in the long term,” she said.

The organization is asking residents to vote on their favorite design of the initiative. The results will be announced during Anchorage Design Week at the Anchorage Museum Feb. 19-23.

This story originally appeared on Alaska Public Media and is republished here with permission.