HUD approves $6.9M reallocation for 48 housing units in Anchorage and Cordova

Forty-eight senior and affordable housing units are now under construction in Anchorage and Cordova after HUD approved a $6.9 million reallocation of Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery funds, the Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs reported Friday. The money had been committed to a Habitat for Humanity replacement housing program that stalled, freeing it for two Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA) projects.

CIHA will receive $3.1 million for Airport Heights Senior Housing Phases 1 and 2 in Anchorage and $3.8 million for a family housing project in Cordova, with both expected to deliver by fall 2028. The funds originate from disaster recovery allocations tied to Typhoon Merbok in 2022 and the 2023 Lower Yukon and 2024 Juneau flood disasters; DCRA administers those grants as the state's pass-through agency under HUD. The agency recently moved its CDBG-DR work into a new Planning, Preparedness, and Disaster Recovery section. Unmet-needs assessments for the broader program included regional meetings in Juneau, Nome, and Bethel, as well as community surveys across all 56 impacted communities, covering a combined $57 million in disaster recovery funds and giving a sense of the scale from which this $6.9 million was drawn.

CIHA described its broader mission in terms that frame the projects as part of a longer institutional arc. "Cook Inlet Housing Authority's story is one of transformation and innovation, always with the goal of creating safe, affordable housing opportunities."