Kodiak’s senior population is growing, but at the same time, the options for housing are shrinking. It’s one part of the island’s overarching housing shortage issue. The Emerald Heights residential complex is one unique option geared towards Kodiak’s older residents. There’s an ongoing effort to expand the facility, but it has some hurdles.
Inside the main lobby at the Emerald Heights housing complex, just past the tenants' mailboxes, a large sculpture of upright wooden logs is wrapped with metal shapes of salmon and various marine life, extending to the floors above.
The three-story building, located on Kodiak’s Near Island, is a 32-unit housing complex that first opened ten years ago, in 2015 when the first tenants move in.
Since then, the majority of the one-bedroom apartments have been filled by seniors, and come with a variety of services, like free laundry, that are part of a “worry free”, inclusive community.
For residents like Sonya Nicholson, that’s exactly what Emerald Heights is.
“It’s 55 and older, so we have professional people that are living here, and retired people. It’s a sense of community, I think like the old fashioned neighborhood where you can step out and visit with your friends, yet you have privacy. You have your own life,” Nicholson explained.
Nicholson has lived in Kodiak at different times for more than 20 years. Her husband, Larry, passed away due to cancer in 2022. She said when they first came to the island in the 1970s, the housing market was tight back then, like it is today.
“You couldn’t find a place to live here," she said. "And my husband was a biologist for Fish & Game. And all of us were about the same age, right out of college. And a lot of us, professional people, ended up in Cove Trailer Park. I mean that was the best we could do at that time.”
Cove Trailer Park no longer exists in Kodiak. That mobile home park and others like it, such as the Jackson Mobile Home Park, have been demolished or significantly restricted in Kodiak, further limiting housing options for low to middle income residents.
Nicholson has been living in a one-bedroom unit in Emerald Heights for two years. The complex is one of Kodiak Island Housing Authority’s options to open up affordable housing for local senior residents – many of whom downsize from their multi-bedroom homes when they move in. Nicholson said she really enjoys it.
“It brings me joy every day, I just have to tell you that. We gather for potlucks and things like that, birthday parties. On Wednesday nights we have a group that plays games in the activities room, which is gorgeous, overlooking the water. It’s really a wonderful environment,” Nicholson said.
According to the Kodiak Island Borough Housing Needs Assessment, which cited data from the Dept. of Labor and Workforce Development or DOLWD, it estimates that Kodiak’s senior population, aged 65 and older, increased by 79% from 915 individuals in 2010 to 1,635 in 2020. The department forecasts the demographic will peak in 2035 at 2,281, then decrease to 1,962 by 2045. But finding a place for them to live locally is going to be a challenge.
Only about 100 dedicated senior housing beds exist in the Kodiak Island Borough, including 32 assisted-care beds, and the older residents are competing with the need to build up more single-family homes for low and middle income residents. 75 more single-family homes are needed just for residents with incomes above $100,000, according to the housing needs assessment.
Mindy Pruitt, the executive director of Kodiak Island Housing Authority, said Emerald Heights offers housing for the increasing senior population without exacerbating the lack of housing locally.
“Maybe their adult children don’t even live in Kodiak, and their grandkids aren’t on the island, and they want to start traveling to go see family. So if you have a, I call it, a worry-free apartment, where all you have to do is shut off your lights and lock your door, and you don’t have to worry about someone breaking and entering your apartment, or your home, or vandalism," Pruitt said. "There are so many win-wins.”
The housing complex on Near Island is already nearly at capacity with only one vacant unit as of Aug. 22. The local housing authority (KIHA) purchased the property next door, a gravel lot that is used mainly as a boatyard on Alimaq Drive, and is reviewing designs so it can expand the housing complex by another 24 units. Nicholson believes that won’t be enough to meet the community's needs, many of whom she knows, that are currently on a waiting list to move into Emerald Heights.
Those new units are already spoken for, and there’s a waitlist with at least another dozen residents who want to live in the senior apartments currently.
Many people waiting to get into Emerald Heights are currently living in single family homes around town. Pruitt said giving senior residents in Kodiak the option to downsize will create more housing options for new families to come into the community.
“If we have maybe 20 or 15 homeowners in the community that want to downsize, that could open up 15 to 20 homes currently built in Kodiak that maybe younger families could purchase from somebody who doesn’t maybe need a great big 3,500 square foot home," Pruitt stated.
One of the hold ups to expanding senior housing though is not a lack of land; it’s the red tape from the local municipal government. Pruitt said her organization will first have to be granted an exemption to the borough’s parking space laws, officially called a variance.
“So right now we have to have 1.5 parking places per unit," Pruitt said. "And so if you look at that current property that we want to build our new building on, it’s going to be a challenge with the footprint; and how do you turn the building to accommodate parking? So one of the discussions that we’ve been having is, is there an opportunity for a variance of parking, but that has to go through the proper channels to be approved.”
Single-family and two-family dwellings are required to have three off-street parking spaces per dwelling unit, except for certain areas within the downtown zone, based on the Kodiak Island Borough code. Each residential parking space shall be a minimum of nine feet wide and 18 feet long.
That parking spot and a half per unit is currently required under Kodiak Island Borough code for multi-family dwellings, which have more than 12 units, like the Emerald Heights facility. That means the housing authority will have to develop another 36 parking spaces to go along with its proposed expansion of 24 units.
Daniel Mckenna-Foster, a municipal planner and former Kodiak employee, told KMXT via email that these laws are, “some of the most restrictive parking mandates I have seen anywhere in the country.”
Kodiak's parking laws and other housing and zoning related codes could be examined by the Borough Lands Committee, which includes representatives from the Borough Assembly, Planning and Zoning Committee, as well as four ex-officio members; Richard Walker from the City Council, Chris French the Community Development Director for the Borough, an assistant facilities engineer for the Coast Guard, and a borough staff member.
The Borough Lands Committee is expected to meet to discuss some of these zoning and housing issues within the next month, which would be its first meeting since 2019. But a scheduled date has not yet been announced.
In the meantime, Pruitt with Kodiak Island Housing Authority, said her team is moving forward with the design phase of the expansion of Emerald Heights to start building more senior housing units as soon as possible.
