Alaska Workforce Housing Bill Advances | Local Business News

The House approved the bill on a 23-15 vote with two lawmakers absent.

Juneau Democratic Rep. Andi Story, the bill’s prime sponsor, said that Alaska’s housing shortage is “at crisis levels,” which is contributing to workforce challenges.

“This shortage is very discouraging to Alaskans and businesses, and it is a persistent barrier to economic growth,” she said before Friday’s final vote.

In 2023, Agnew::Beck Consulting estimated that Alaska would need to build 27,500 new units over the next decade to meet demand. However, actual construction numbers have fallen far below those targets.

HB 184 was supported by all present members of the Democrat-dominated House majority and three minority Republicans.

Supporters said the legislation would help with resource development projects and to address workforce shortages more generally. Story cited examples of health care workers who had turned down jobs in Juneau due to a lack of housing.

Rep. Jeremy Bynum, a Ketchikan Republican in the minority, voted for the bill. He said shipyard projects and fish processors in Ketchikan and Wrangell were exciting developments for Southeast Alaska, but a shortage of housing remained a concern.

“We have a tremendous need for workforce housing,” he said on Friday.

Opponents of the bill noted that AIDEA already has the authority to invest in multi-unit housing for workers.

Mark Davis, special counsel for the agency, told lawmakers last year that AIDEA does have that authority and it has invested in workforce housing in the past. He cited examples of the agency financing construction of work camps in Prudhoe Bay.

“However, we have also said that this provides clarification that we would have that power,” he said, later adding that it would be a “positive bill.”

Some opposition to the bill centered on whether new housing units would actually serve workers in critical industries or if it would direct construction of affordable housing.

A previous version of HB 184 used the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definition of workforce housing: “(as) residential housing that costs the occupants less than 30 percent of the income of a household with 120 percent of the median family income.”

But that definition was removed from the bill in committee. Instead, the bill states that AIDEA should facilitate the financing of “new workforce housing facilities containing five or more dwelling units.”

Big Lake Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe on Friday suggested the legislation was a “thinly-veiled attempt” to direct AIDEA into the construction of “community housing.” He said the agency, which was established in 1967, should be focused on “job creation.” He said that HB 184 would change AIDEA’s basic structure.

McCabe attempted to amend the bill on Wednesday to limit its scope, but he was unsuccessful.

HB 184 now heads to the Senate for its consideration. A similar bill in that legislative chamber has advanced to the Senate Finance Committee.