Petersburg has the fourth grade’s new teacher in the fall of this year -the name is Sharon Paulson. Sharon Paulson moved from the city of Petersburg in the summer. The floor in her house is littered with instruments that are played by her young son five year old Glenn. Maracas as well as tambourines, ukuleles and tambourines. In the center of the room the musician had a steel drum engraved with the first seven letters the alphabet.
Paulson made her signing official in the month of March. Paulson announced the contract in front of her husband as well as son. She then began looking for a house in Petersburg.
“I checked out Zillow and it was hilarious,” said Paulson. “Someone suggested that I check Facebook and I discovered that there was not many people there. I checked at the realtor firms both. My administrators were sending out a message to individuals. We had a list of AirBnBs that we could request if they could let us rent.”
After more than two months of searching Paulson found a classified advertisement in the local newspaper.
“That was the only chance I had of finding housing,” said Paulson. “It was really like that if we don’t have an apartment, we’ll never be able to complete this move. We found a house and the offer was accepted and I could clearly feel the relief disappear of my husband’s face.”
Stories similar to hers are not uncommon in Petersburg. This is why last fall residents of the Borough Assembly set up a housing task team. Assembly member Dave Kensinger chairs the task team.
“I think we should find a way to begin building more homes,” said Kensinger. “It’s fairly straightforward. If we don’t address it, there won’t be the same number of people around town.”
Kessinger claims that’s the easy part. The tough part? What kind of housing do you want. To answer this question, the task force conducted an assessment of the needs of the community in housing. It was conducted for a period of one month during the summer and was overseen by the Anchorage-based Agnew Beck Consulting. The results are now available. Katie Scovic is the senior manager at Agnew Beck.
“We received 366 responses on this Community Housing Survey in Petersburg which is amazing,” said Scovic. “That’s approximately 10 percent of the population. That’s an amazing rate for this type of survey.”
The questionnaire was ten pages in length with 39 questions. Here are some of the most important results A quarter of the respondents aren’t satisfied with their homes Most of those unhappy are younger than 45 who are working and renting. The majority of respondents want to make the move to family homes However, duplexes and apartments are also in high demand. 80percent of respondents would like to see more land that is open to housing.
The study reveals that the lack of skilled labor as well as the cost of repair are keeping people from renovating their home. However, Scovic states there are people out there who do not belong to any of these categories are still concerned about the problem.
“The majority of Petersburg residents are happy with their housing,” said Scovic. “But it is also true that the majority of residents feel they believe housing should be a collective problem. So to have both of these things simultaneously is a good thing.”
Now, the staff of Agnew Beck have been sifting through the information to determine what kind of the ideal housing Petersburg requires.
“So in accordance with our forecasts of housing needs over the next 10 years, we’ll need for around the equivalent of 316 units for housing in Petersburg,” said Scovic. “We’re considering around six new units per year, as well as 18 renovation or rehab units every year over the next 10 years.”
Once consultants finish their final report at close of the month, Kensinger states there’s no time to waste.
“The moment to do something was 10 years ago,” explained Kensinger. “And in order to maintain a vibrant community, and we do not want a community made up of retired people it is time to tackle the housing issue now -not in the next.”
However, it’s much harder to do than it sounds, with regards to land, labor and logistics. Many people who live in Petersburg will face major issues which need to be taken care of before anything else. At the Paulson family house, Sharon has shifted her attention to a new challenge entirely – beginning the day that school starts. Perhaps she’ll be able to come up with an easy housing plan while she’s there.
