A tribal housing authority wants to build 40 affordable homes on wetlands

The Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority is moving to build 40 new homes for tribal citizens and other local residents — and the project runs into the constraint that shapes so much construction in Southeast Alaska: to make room, it would have to fill wetlands.

The S'et Kanax̱ Dut'en Subdivision is aimed at people earning under 80% of the area's median family income, the households most squeezed by Southeast's tight, expensive housing. Building it means filling about 4.12 acres of wetlands and laying down roughly 60,700 cubic yards of fill for roads, utilities, and home sites — which triggers a state water-quality review and a federal wetlands permit before anything can break ground.

That review is now open for public comment. It's narrow by design: the state is weighing only the project's effects on water quality, not the housing itself or its cultural footprint. The Army Corps of Engineers can't issue its permit until the state signs off or waives its review.