Anchorage, May 31 - A recently released economic impact study indicates that Alaska’s regional housing authorities generated $268 million in economic activity statewide in 2010 and employed 2,250 individual Alaskans. The total dollars spent in the Alaskan economy by the regional housing authorities increased by $91 million from 2008, the last year studied, partially due to expenditures related to the state’s Weatherization Assistance Program.
The impact study, commissioned by the Association of Alaska Housing Authorities and completed by economic consulting firm the McDowell Group, analyzed the regional housing authorities’ economic impact on the state during the years 2009 and 2010. The study found that, in 2010, the regional housing authorities:
- Generated $268 million in economic impact activity statewide
- Purchased $109 million of in-state goods and services (an increase of nearly $31 million from 2008).
- Employed 2,250 individual Alaskans either full-time, part-time or seasonally
- Constructed 195 affordable, energy-efficient new homes across the state
- Weatherized 872 homes statewide
- Rehabilitated 556 existing homes
- Served 15,000 clients statewide
Alaska’s regional housing authorities build new homes, renovate and weatherize existing homes, employ Alaskans, provide assistance in purchasing a home, provide renter and home buyer education and build infrastructure for housing development and community facilities.
The regional housing authorities are the primary builders of new housing in rural Alaska and a key affordable housing producer in Alaska’s urban centers. In the past ten years, Cook Inlet Housing Authority has built more affordable housing in Anchorage than any other organization.
The regional authorities were created in 1971 under state statute to address an acute shortage of housing in Alaska. The housing agencies’ service areas are similar to the regional service areas of Alaska Native non-profit organizations.
