OPINION: Solving Anchorage’s housing crisis, one home at a time

Building housing in existing neighborhoods is a must for Anchorage. Record-high housing costs and low availability are straining even middle-class budgets. Luckily, city leaders have the tools to make Anchorage’s housing market more accessible, starting with giving more of us the freedom to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

ADUs come in many forms: backyard cottages, above-garage suites or apartments attached to the main house. Essentially, they are modest but complete living spaces paired with a primary house on the same lot. ADUs allow older residents to age in place and maintain the social connections that are critical for aging well. They also allow younger people on starting salaries to live in neighborhoods where one-house properties exceed their budgets. Other benefits include generating rental income for homeowners, creating a place for family or friends, and increasing property values.

Given these benefits, ADUs have bipartisan backing. ADU-friendly policies move cities toward more efficient land use, effectively managing developable land. And they enable more equitable access to housing by adding supply to the market. They also give people more freedom to do what they want with their private property. A NeighborWorks Alaska survey of over 500 Anchorage residents found the most support for ADUs, cottages and other compact housing options, with the least support for more large single-family housing.

For decades, Anchorage land-use policy has favored one-house lots, the most resource-intensive and expensive form of housing. These policies have crowded out more affordable housing types, and are in part responsible for a local housing market where single-family home sale prices averaged a record-high $424,252 in 2021. People who rent suffer even more since they tend to make less money than people who own homes. In Anchorage, median rent went up more than 14% from 2016 to 2022, according to the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. Despite high prices, new home construction remains low, with just 378 new housing units added in 2021, and likely under 300 new units in 2022.

Fixing the problem will require policies that allow for a wider variety of housing and more of it. Older Alaskans are one group that stands to benefit from policies that support ADUs and other forms of compact and multifamily housing. Nearly 70% of Alaska residents age 45 and older currently live in Alaska full-time. An AARP poll from 2020 showed 74% want to stay in their home and another 63% need affordable housing options. Seniors prefer modest homes, with 75% wanting a home under 2,000 square feet, according to a 2021 survey by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation. ADUs meet these criteria, keeping more seniors here, along with all they contribute to the community in disposable income, volunteer time and longtime Alaska knowledge.

ADU reform is just one of the many needed to right-size Anchorage’s housing supply. The 2040 Plan set a target of 1,000 new ADUs in the Bowl by 2040. To reach this target, the Anchorage Assembly revised the ADU ordinance in 2018, aiming for ADU construction to account for 20% of annual residential building permits. However, since those changes ADUs have only accounted for 7% ADUs per year. The muni asked homeowners with ADUs about the barriers they encountered in building them. Zoning limitations, permitting costs and the property review process were among the biggest factors the municipality can influence. Alaska’s high cost of construction and materials was another factor.

Starting in late 2021, the Planning Department developed proposed code amendments for ADUs to reduce barriers to building them. They include eliminating owner-occupancy, amending size and height restrictions, and allowing ADUs as accessory units to duplexes. Time-worn arguments for preventing such changes ignore the fact that Anchorage’s housing supply, like the rest of the country’s, needs a boost. The amendments will go before the Assembly on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The public can send comments to wwmas@muni.org.

The Assembly recently made the laudable step of unanimously getting rid of parking mandates, a small step toward improving the layout and sustainability of our city through more efficient land use. Likewise, ADU reform would be another small step in the same direction.

Teresa Holt serves as State Director for AARP Alaska.

Lindsey Hajduk is Director of Community Engagement for NeighborWorks Alaska.

Jeannette Lee is a senior housing researcher with Sightline Institute.

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