Sunsational

Ridgeline Terrace

Anchorage Mayor's Marathon

ANCHORAGE - Think solar and cities like Phoenix or Miami or San Diego likely come to mind. Not Anchorage, though, especially in the middle of winters when the days are short and, when it's up, the Sun travels very low across the horizon.

As winter turns to spring to summer, that all changes, from just five-and-a-half hours of daylight at the winter solstice to more than 19 at the summer solstice. If there's light enough to run a marathon at midnight, there's solar energy enough to power Anchorage homes.

That's not lost on the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and its new, non-profit development subsidiary, the Alaska Corporation for Affordable Housing. Last fall, they celebrated the grand opening of the Susitna Square Townhomes in the Russian Jack neighborhood of Anchorage, its 18 units reports The Alaska Journal of Commerce (http://www.alaskajournal.com/business-and-finance/2015-09-16/ahfc-uses-new-financing-tools-anchorage-developments#.Vpl2ebnUgjE), replacing 16 "old, worn down" public housing units from the 1970s." All 18 are powered by electricity generated from photovoltaic panels and heated by solar thermal panels. That's earned Susitna Square's a U.S. Department of Energy a 5-star rating.

Ditto for Ridgelijne Terrace, in Anchorage's Mountain View neighborhood with 70 units - 50 for families and 20 for seniors - that opened this January. Its units too will be powered by photovoltaic panels, heated by solar thermal ones. It too earned 5 stars.

"There has always been this idea that solar power is possible only in places with a lot of bright sunshine," explains Tim Teeslink of, GenPro's, the South Dakota firm which supplied the panels. "But Anchorage is fairly cloudy -- just 126 sunny or partly sunny days, compared with 164 days in Seattle -- and we are able to show that solar is a viable source of heat and electricity here."

Indeed it is. Ridgeline Terrace's 325 photovoltaic panels, he says, will generate 63,000 kilowatt hours of electricity - enough to electrify typical American home for nearly six years. The 84 solar thermal panels provide nearly 2.8 million BTU of heat each year. The result? Lower operating expenses for the Corporation and utility bills for residents.

Going solar, though, is a means, not an end. Like most other American cities - big, small and anywhere in between - Anchorage faces a shortage of affordable housing. Vacancy rates in Anchorage, says Alaska Public Radio (http://www.alaskapublic.org/2015/09/11/new-ways-to-fund-housing-in-anchorage-opens-doors-for-low-income-families/), are just over half the nationwide vacancy. Case in point, there were more than 150 applicants for Susitna Square's 18 and "hundreds more applied" for Ridgeline Terrace's 70 units. Both developments, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation CEO and President Bryan Butcher explains, provide "relief in a tight market" to "the growing list of those who say they need financial assistance with their housing."

Cook Inlet Housing Authority initially conceived Susitna Square and Ridgeline Terrace and now will manage both properties. Together, they cost some $29 million to build. The solar tax credits helped crack that nut, to make sure the housing's affordable. But there was "lots more" involved, says Butcher. Land was bought with HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization funds. Income-eligible households will receive HUD-funded rent subsidies. It received financial support from the Legislature and a grant from Anchorage's Rasmuson Foundation. The Federal housing and solar tax credits generated equity from KeyBank. And, last but not least, funds not needed to build an earlier affordable housing complex were used to finance these projects.

"It's always kind of amazing that we actually got from where we first talked about the affordable housing to actually moving in" and "to do what you have to do to get affordable housing built in the community," Butcher says.

The Mountain View neighborhood where Ridgeline Terrace is located has recently been declared the most diverse neighborhood in the United States. It wasn't always that way. "As in every urban center, low-income neighborhoods tend to get a bad rap," writes Nithya Thiru writes in The Anchorage Press (http://www.anchoragepress.com/news/community-choice), adding that she "grew up being taught to fear Mountain View" a place "to be avoided at all costs." Not anymore.

It's "become a very different place from the neighborhood that I was once taught to fear," she says. "Those changes are not random happenstance, but the result of concerted efforts by individuals and organizations in Anchorage to build a stronger, healthier and safer community." Ridgeline Terrace is the latest example.

"It's our hope," Butcher adds, "that we're able to do this over and over again, not just in Anchorage but all over the state." Hear, hear. HUD's proud to have played a role in these two projects. And, no surprise, we're eager to do it "over and over again" in cities, towns and villages across Alaska.

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