The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-10-20
HOUSING PLANS MADE FOR ALASKA, E. C. WILDER SAYS
Private Building Aids h. eIuded in AHA Director 5
 Legislative Program

AHA director, Tn Juneau on HIS way to Anchorage headquarters after attending the National Conference of Housing Authority Officials in Seattle.
 The Alaska Housing Commission has one intention. MT. Wilder said, "to seek the best solution to hous- inc problems in Alaska for Alaska itself, not for any other advantages.
 One point to which the Housing Director called attention is that the Alaska Housing Authority, which is strictly territorial agency, might be confused with the FILA or PHA in the States, and the FILA func- tions, which are strictly federal under the Territorial Legislatures enabling act which established the Alaska Housing Authority, we have a somewhat different purpose be- hind our functions than those in the states" Wilder said. Where housing authority functions in the states are restricted to public hous- ing, Alaska's chief problem is to solve housing problems"
 We will do everything within our power and ability to aid private enterprise and private home con- struction," MT. Wilder said.
 By bettering the financial situa- ton and, insofar as possible, by re- ducing building costs by the en- couragement of local production of building materials and supplies, we hope to be able to help priyate enterprise solve the territorial hous- ing problem
 Hopeful that the Alaska Federal Housing Authority can encourage private home construction by CO., ordinating the efforts of individual groups and by apprising them of the various needs in the housing field. MT. Wilder mentioned the progress that he made in Ketchi- kan by coordinating community needs and the services the AHA was able to supply.
 "As a secondary part ot our pro gram that has been forced upon us by the acuteness of the housing sit uation in the Territory, we are seeking federal and territorial aids to provide such emergency public housing as is required for those groups of people not served by pri- yate home industry and for those needs that are not met privately when the lack of housing would retard and jeopardize the develop mens of the territory
 A definite program in the form of territorial and federal aid through legislation has been formu- lated by the housing commission, Mir Wilder said.
 Proposed legislation to te pre- sented to both the Congress and the Territorial Legislature which would provide funds for aiding in finan- cial marketing or production of pri- vately developed housing is being prepared. Under such legislation we would be enabled to make studies that would aid us in improving the material and costs situation and included would be provisions for funds to develop public housing Ii and when that becomes necessary" said the AHA director.
 Tn these bills we have stipulat- ed that no public housing shall be constructed in any community un- less that community specifically re- quests such housing be constructed the director said, and, as an im- portant feature of the AHA pro- gram, he added, lin no case will such public housing be constructed when it will interfere with the pro- visions of private homes when pri- vate homes are vacant and available in the community at a reasonable rental or sale price"
 The importance of housing in the development of the Territory is paramount in the opinion of MT. Wilder Before we can get people up here, we have to be able to- of fer them decent places in which to live
 i've talked to the people inter- ested in the pulp projects at ket- chikan and Sitka. None of these want. to build their necessary hous- ing and it is up to the territory to provide the housing that will be necessary for the personnel of their organizations" said MT. Wilder, in emphasizing the advantage of hous- ing to industry.
 But always, and I want to make that clear, our first hope is to de- velop private housing so that minimum of public housing will be necessary" was his emphatic con- clusion.
 At the National Conference of Housing Authority officials, in Se- attle, Wilder talked to the Hawaiian housing authority executives who told him of the s5,c00,000 appro- priated by the Hawaiian legislature to develop public housing. The need for housing in the Islands is much less than in Alaska, MT. Wilder said, and there is the additional dif- ference that building costs in Ha- waii are about 50 percent less than