Houston plans a door-to-door income survey to qualify for an $850,000 fire station grant

City staff in the Mat-Su city of Houston plan to go door to door asking residents about household income so the city can qualify for an $850,000 federal grant to help build Fire Station 93, Deputy Clerk Charlie Shupe told the City Council on Monday.

The money is a Community Development Block Grant, which the state awards to projects where at least 51% of the people who benefit are low or moderate income, according to the state Division of Community and Regional Affairs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development puts Houston at 49.6%, Shupe said, just under the line. The survey is meant to show the station's service area clears it.

Staff are looking at areas around Crater Lake and Cheri Lake Drive for a short questionnaire, and may expand it to most of the city. Shupe said two staff members will likely do the canvassing, possibly with someone from the fire department, and agreed with a suggestion that canvassers stay neutral rather than make a sales pitch for the station.

Shupe, who lives in the area the station would serve, said it would lower insurance costs and shorten response times.

The station would share a building with the city's Public Works Department. Congress included $1.95 million for it in the federal agriculture spending law for fiscal 2026, at Sen. Lisa Murkowski's request, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural community facilities program. The block grant would serve as the city's match and, Shupe said, pay only for the fire protection share of design and construction.

The $850,000 is the most one community can receive. The application is due Dec. 4.

The council voted 5-2 on Oct. 8 to apply, with council members Lisa Johansen and Callie Courtney opposed. A feasibility study for the station was finished Oct. 4, according to a statement from Mayor Carter Cole read at Monday's meeting.

The council also reelected Cole as mayor Monday, 6-1, and Jeff Brasel as deputy mayor without opposition. The council picks both from among its members.

Brasel later thanked Shupe for the grant work. "I don't envy you in door knocking around here," he said, "so have fun with that."