Covid Funding Helps Build Homes in Overcrowded Bering Strait Communities

More than a third of residents in the Bering Strait region are living in overcrowded conditions, according to the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. The pandemic has made it difficult to build homes in Western Alaska. But it’s also provided opportunities for more funding to alleviate some housing issues that exist in the region.

“In the Bering Straits outside of Nome, the overcrowding rate is 37%,” said former CEO of Bering Straits Regional Housing Authority, Chris Kolerok, according to APM. “19% of that are homes being classified as severely overcrowded. And during community meetings we have been confronted with the heartbreaking stories of 21 people sharing a small three-bedroom home.”, Kolerok said when he gave public testimony on housing conditions in the region three years ago. 

Each community gets a certain amount of funding from the Housing and Urban Development Department based on the population of the tribe. BSRHA received additional funds from Covid-related grants and can afford to build more homes in 2022. Shaktoolik, Diomede, and Wales are all set to receive new homes in 2022. On top of that, King Island tribal members received two new modular homes constructed in Nome last year.

Nevertheless, a couple of single-family homes every ten years or so is not enough to tackle the issue of overcrowding