A Stronger Anchorage Starts with More Places to Live

Posted to ADN on 6/29/2026

YWCA Alaska applauds Assembly Members Baldwin Day and Martinez for moving the Missing Middle Housing Overlay Project (MMHOP) forward. We also appreciate the ADN Editorial Board for its steady, sober, and well-informed message of support not just for MMHOP, but for additional steps to increase housing supply in Anchorage.

Policies that encourage abundant housing in general and MMHOP in particular align perfectly with the Y’s mission. The housing crisis falls disproportionately on women and people of color. The United States Department of Health and Human Services found that in 2019 that over 37 million households were “housing burdened”, meaning they spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Among those, Black and Hispanic households were twice as likely to be cost burdened. HHS found that this forces people to accept substandard housing that “exposes them to health and safety risks, such as vermin, mold, water leaks, and inadequate heating or cooling systems”. They are also more likely to move in with friends or family, leading to overcrowding. These outcomes are all too familiar to those paying attention to who Anchorage’s housing crisis is hitting the hardest.

MMHOP can begin addressing our housing supply crisis in earnest. However, there is a second outcome that benefits our neighbors most in need of housing. The Municipality’s largest asset is its land base. It is the basis for Municipal revenues and when it is underutilized, it hurts our most marginalized communities the most. When the Municipality is short on revenue, it makes cuts. Those cuts hit the infrastructure and services our poorest residents depend on the most. When we do not have the money to maintain infrastructure, repairs go unmade and the very lifeblood of our city deteriorates to the point of failure. When we cannot afford schools, we damage our children’s futures, especially those whose families do not have the income to send them to private schools. When we cut transit, we force people to either walk farther to catch a bus or worse yet, force them into car ownership, which carries with it perpetual cash outlays in the form of fuel, insurance, and maintenance. When a car breaks down in a poor family, the cascading effects can be devastating, leading to job loss, and even eviction.

MMHOP would not only increase tax revenues collected in our urban core, it would provide housing in proximity to existing public transit, allowing for those who cannot or simply prefer not to own a car to still get where they need to go and participate in both the economy and their community. MMHOP is the right thing to do for our most marginalized neighbors, our infrastructure, and our Municipal fiscal picture. We applaud the Sponsors for moving forward eight months after the Mayor asked for a pause, guaranteeing community conversations that seemingly never came. We can no longer wait for the egos of Anchorage’s wealthy and influential to be assuaged while our working-class neighbors drown in housing that is unaffordable and unsafe, when it is available at all. We call on the Assembly to pass MMHOP when it comes before the body in September.

Until Justice Just Is,

Jessie Lavoie

CEO, YWCA Alaska