The Nikiski Senior Center may be getting some new housing units courtesy of appropriated funds from a recent bill in the U.S. Senate.
According to a recent announcement from the Senate Appropriations Committee, if the bill is passed $1 million would be set aside to “expand the Nikiski Senior Center’s available senior housing to 16 units.”
Currently, there are eight units in the Senior Shore Apartments at the Senior Center with a 32-applicant waitlist which would be partially curtailed by the addition of the eight new units.
John Walker, the Nikiski Senior Center Assistant Director, said that development of the new units has already begun by clearing the land where they will be built. However, $1 million in federal dollars would go a long way toward pushing the project across the finish line.
“We’re very hopeful,” Walker said of the potential for federal aid. The Center has about $3.4 million left to raise to fully fund the new units, but Walker says they’ve been chipping away at the project as money comes in. “We pre-purchased a septic system and pre-purchased a bunch of gravel for leveling. You know, even as we got funding, we were trying to do little bits and pieces.”
The need for additional funding is critical as Walker says costs for another eight-unit complex are prohibitively more expensive than those of the first units built for the Center. “Costs have like tripled since we built the last set of eight here…So yeah, this is a huge chunk of money that would help us get this thing started.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee last week advanced the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD) Bill to the Senate floor for consideration. The bill funds an array of projects and programs to address Alaska’s needs across all modes of transportation, affordable housing, and critical community infrastructure.
A press release from the office of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a senior member of the appropriations committee, calls the lack of affordable housing in the state “One of the top issues facing Alaskans.”
Murkowski ensures that the THUD bill will increase funding for several grant programs for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD), including the HOME Investment Partnership Program and the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program.
