Our city government has proven itself incapable of respect, heeding fiscal boundaries

(City and Borough of Juneau photo)

By Joshua Adams

Is it the government’s job to build your home? CBJ government seems to think that it can simply build its way out of Juneau’s housing conundrum. The population of Juneau is in decline, yet skilled contractors are being paid premiums by our local government to build risky housing projects at taxpayer expense. Juneau has more livable units than it did 20 years ago.

So why are we in a housing crisis? In January 2015, a Project Homeless Connect count identified approximately 200 unsheltered homeless individuals in the capital city. According to the Alaska Homeless Management Information System, that number increased to 371 in 2025 — an 85% increase in 10 years. The numbers are even more dramatic when we take structural homelessness into account. Those are the people dodging from couch to couch, living in hotels, crashing with friends and family because they got kicked out of their apartment when it turns into an Airbnb during the summer.

CBJ government already has the levers to solve this crisis. They can regulate the short-term housing market. They can offer grant subsidies for historic preservation projects that will incentivize building owners to rent out their upper stories as housing. But instead, they are doing just the opposite. In the case of Ridgeview Apartments, new units were subsidized with affordable housing funds, but later sold at market value as luxury apartments. Time and time again, our local government is approaching a complicated problem with a sledgehammer. The people of Juneau do not need large public projects that build affordable housing; they need housing to become more affordable. 

Owner-builders are capable of approaching tasks that wouldn’t be feasible for a contractor because they have a ground-level, microeconomic view of the situation. A large contractor working with public funds simply does not have the resources to offer each project what a fleet of property owners can. This is called incremental development because it solves housing shortages without adding infrastructure costs.

On Sept. 22, almost a hundred people protested the Assembly's plan to spend $9 million to do nothing more than demolish 13 livable units on Telephone Hill, yet continue to gaslight the public, parroting the same infantile fantasy of dense housing on a steep, perforated and unstable hillside. We’re all excited to experience the noise and traffic congestion that will incur. Meanwhile, they want to spend another $18 million purchasing and remodeling a new City Hall. Time and time again, our city government has proven itself incapable of heeding its own fiscal boundaries and respecting the people when we say "no."

The only thing that our local government is going to do with our money going forward is give administrators another raise, demolish usable living units, purchase a new City Hall and try to install Wade Bryson's góndola at Eaglecrest. The only thing left is to cut them off. 

Vote yes - yes - no on Oct. 7. 

• Joshua Adams is an incremental developer who specializes in endangered historic properties.