The sale of government-built houses that have sat unoccupied for years is attracting former and new residents to Klukwan.
The Tlingit Haida Regional Housing Authority built about 20 ranch-style houses on Falconer Street in the village in the early 1970s, when the population was larger than the 95 villagers there today. Over time, as many as 10 homes became vacant as owners died or moved away to find work. Some homes became weathered and moldy and were boarded up.
Ownership of the homes returned to the housing authority, which also tried to rent them. The agency last year sold two of the houses it recently improved. Four of five others, which had been empty more than a decade, were sold as-is at “much discounted” prices, authority president Ricardo Worl said this week.
“THRHA is grateful that we were able to finally have these units occupied…THRHA was motivated to sell them at very reasonable prices,” Worl said in an email. “Having the units occupied will also help the economy and the long-term sustainability of the community.”
Buyers and village residents this week cited two factors that led to the vacancies: Homes didn’t come with ownership of the lots they sat on, and only Chilkat tribal members and spouses are permitted to live in the village, which is communally owned.
“People moved out because of the high cost of living in those houses. Tlingit Haida tried renting them, but they hit a brick wall. They couldn’t rent to just anybody. Nobody wanted to buy them or rent them, so they became dilapidated,” said Jack Strong, a resident of Bonnie Lake, Wash., who recently purchased one of the homes and plans to return to the village in March.
A retired construction contractor, Strong will be moving into building #15, a three-bedroom house the agency recently improved, including with new flooring, paint and cabinets.
Strong, 64, grew up in the village, but has lived most of his life in the Lower 48. He said he wants to be with family. “I can’t see myself living to 120. I want to spend the rest of my life at home, where I came from.”
A few years ago, Strong took photos of the decaying houses and showed them to the regional housing authority, prodding it to put the houses on the market. Salvageable houses should be sold, but others should be torn down, which also would be good for the village by making room for new houses to be built on their lots, Strong said.
“People are picking off the (houses) favorable for rebuilding. Some of the other ones, if you offered $500, (the housing authority) would jump on it because it would cost them more to get rid of them,” Strong said.
Marsha Warner, 49, a substitute teacher from San Jose, Calif., has bought a home in the village and plans to move there in the next few weeks. Warner, daughter of Ralph Strong of Haines, said family ties as well as projects like the underway cultural center helped make her decision to move north.
Warner has never lived in the village but she and her husband, a software engineer, have renovated and sold homes in California. She visited Klukwan four times in the past year, picking berries and helping relatives put up fish. She said she’s looking forward to learning traditional skills.
“We’re really excited about living in a more sustainable way and being with family. I’m looking forward to learning the culture, learning from my aunts and uncles, and passing that on to my (college-aged) girls,” Warner said. “Also, being able to spend time with my dad is really important to me.”
It helps, she said, that her husband’s job allows him to work remotely.
Klukwan village council president Jones Hotch Jr. this week declined to say what impact the sale of the homes might have on the traditional Chilkat community sometimes called “The Mother Village.” He said all the houses once were occupied, and that some residents left for economic reasons.
Hotch also said the rule restricting village residency to tribal members and spouses wasn’t actively enforced at the time the homes were built.
Mary Elsner, a mortgage and property officer for the regional housing authority, said the unoccupied houses at Klukwan have been for sale, on and off, for some time.
Elsner said her agency still owns several houses in the village. The houses were built under a federal Housing and Urban Development program, but the authority was no longer receiving HUD funds to maintain them.
Although villages in Southeast are losing population, Klukwan’s accessibility sets it apart, Elsner said. “Klukwan is on the main highway. You can drive out of it. That’s a key factor, I would think. If I was going to relocate to somewhere that’s a small village, I’d consider it.”