Kenai has 120 seniors waiting for housing that doesn't exist yet

There are 120 people on a waitlist for senior housing in Kenai — housing that, for now, doesn't exist. And the city's own plan doesn't call for even studying the problem until around 2030.

That gap surfaced at the Kenai Council on Aging's July meeting, where the waitlist drew a blunt reaction from senior center director Kathy Romain: "No wonder we have a waitlist of 120." Housing availability and affordability came up as top local concerns in a 2025 community survey, and the pressure hasn't eased since. The commission agreed to start looking for money now rather than wait on the city's timeline, and plans to bring in an Alaska Housing Finance Corporation official to walk through a state grant program aimed at senior housing.

The demand for senior services in Kenai is climbing across the board. The senior center just landed a federal grant to buy a wheelchair-accessible van, adding capacity after transportation use jumped 67% in the past year — a sign of how fast the community's older population is leaning on these services, and a hint of the housing crunch still ahead.