3. The current affordable housing crisis is limiting staff recruitment and retention possibilities for social service and educational providers.
Heidi Raffaele: Affordable housing is considerably greater than the amount of time we have to discuss it here today. When you’re talking about young professionals coming into Sitka, you’re also typically talking about recent college grads, they may or may not have families – they’re typically not in a position of savings to be able to afford a home. We’re not paying a great starting wage, as a school district or in some of these other community businesses – we need to take a look at that and find our how we can supplement, through other means, ways that will impact them economically to help them have an affordable life here. They may not be able to afford a home, but they may be able to afford a proper rent, or a proper first-time home buying opportunity. We need to look at whole picture – not just how can we provide affordable housing, we need to talk about how we can provide affordable living here.
Reber Stein: Sitka has the good fortune of having an affordable housing program manager, who’s done the research and has the expertise to provide strategies for the rest of the community to consider and implement. The housing report that Mr. AuYeung provided recently has a checklist of things that the community can do to improve affordable housing. I would recommend that if you haven’t looked at the affordable housing report, that you do. One thing it demonstrates is that the desire for housing is not in larger homes, but the interest in housing is in smaller homes. What the City can do is take the results of his study and other evidence to promote construction of homes and apartments in areas that are under filled. I feel a coordinated effort is the very least a community can do. As far as going on to retain or attract young professionals - we already have a high quality of living, but we need to expand upon and consolidate the other assets we have that make Sitka such a great place. I’m thrilled at efforts of Sitka Trail Works and other organizations in town to develop trails. I think we have a very well-managed City, largely due to our police force, and they deserve some credit for that. Our quality of life is definitely one thing that offsets the higher costs.
Jack Ozment: Mr. AuYeung has done a great job for us in leading us forward, in my opinion. At Tuesday night’s meeting we reviewed his proposal for developing mixed housing for the old city shops property, we have 10 lots along Indian River area that we’re hoping to develop as zero-lot lines. The city cannot legislate the price of housing. We can work with Mr. AuYeung on the opportunities he comes up with for tax structure and grant structure to try to bring in housing, but once we turn the property over, it’s difficult to legally maintain a covenance on that property. We can do that for the first owner, but that’s about as far as we can go. As far as getting young people here – we need to promote our lifestyle. We have this bicycle friendly thing that’s going, we have a great environment here, lots of things to do – we should make a big effort to promote those things to prospective employees.
Joseph Reeves: Mr. AuYeung has this plan, which is a good one. When he comes back with plans, we’ll definitely look at them and abide by them and not question them. He’s getting info from experts who know how to work the land – what will work, what won’t work – that’s a step in the right direction. As far as attracting – all of it has to do with finances. Keep utilities down as we can, keep the bills down – if your electric bill or your garbage bill gets too high, it doesn’t matter how little you’re going to pay for the house, you won’t be able to sustain it if you have to pay all these outrageous bills. We need to do as much as we can to make it affordable all the way around. Also, the pay wages up here aren’t that great – if you don’t get paid a decent wage, you’re not going to be able to get a decent house. I don’t care how affordable it is – if the money’s not there, you’re not going to be able to afford it.
Chad McGraw: In my opinion, affordable housing is probably the most important issue facing our community. It not only limits recruitment and retention opportunities for existing companies, it is also preventing new companies from relocating to Sitka. We, as a City, must solve this problem. The affordable housing problem will not be solved until the City provides the necessary resources. Our community differs greatly from communities in the lower 48. There is significant private land available that is affordable; therefore most local governments in the lower 48 change zoning requirements for private developers, so they can construct homes either closer together, or build condo style developments. Our situation is quite different as there is not significant private land available. The majority of our land is City, State, or Federal owned. Therefore, the City will need to subsidize the land, and potentially the development costs for the infrastructure (water, sewer, and power) before we are going to be able to construct affordable housing. The cost of the land is the driving factor of affordable housing. The actual construction costs of the structure do not vary that greatly from construction costs in the Northwest.