Anchorage, Alaska’s comprehensive plan recognizes manufactured housing as an affordable option, but Anchorage 2020, as it’s called, does not protect manufactured housing communities (MHCs) from redevelopment, resulting in the loss of nearly 500 housing units since 2000. The replacement dwellings are less dense, and with the slowdown in production of new homes, a “housing gridlock” has resulted, leading to higher rents, a drop in vacancy rates and calls for denser housing to meet demand, according to adn.com. The Riviera Terrace Mobile Home Park, where residents pay $425 a month for a homesite, is being converted to upscale housing units that will rent for $1,400 to $2,000 monthly, triple the density of Riviera. The new homes will be built in four phases three to four years apart, so not all the 170 current homesites will need to be vacated at once. The developer is offering each home owner relocation assistance and/or help in finding a new residence if their home is not moveable.

Meanwhile, two miles north of Riviera Terrace, at the Four Seasons MHC, management chose to replace aging pre-HUD Code homes with new manufactured homes offered first to current residents, as MHProNews has learned. ##

(Photo credit: Christopher Kat/netnewsledger.com–delivering manufactured home in winter in Alaska)