The Daily News ran a front page story Sunday about how aging, government-funded homes in many villages are literally rotting away.
Tuesday, I talked to someone who was mighty steamed about unsafe housing like that and by the state's utter failure to do much about it.
"We've got firetraps out there that will kill people if we do nothing," the man said. "We simply can't wait for another 10 years of do-nothing (responses) ... We have to call it a crisis; we have to cost it out, and we have to fix it."
He said he knew where the money to do it was too: Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. The agency's accounts have at least $724 million more than needed to cover all its housing bonds and other legal obligations, he said. Every year, AHFC pays millions of dollars of "profits" into the state treasury, he noted.
"Why should Alaskans live in Third World conditions when the housing agency has so much money? What are they saving it for?" he asked.
You might think such a passionate call to action came from a rural legislator or a Native leader, or maybe a big spending liberal Democrat who worships President Obama.
And you'd be wrong.
I was talking to Jim Crawford, an Anchorage real estate developer and businessman who just happens to be a former chair of the Alaska Republican Party.
I know Jim a little, so I teased him about hearing this call to government activism from a guy who normally supports less government and low taxes.
There's no contradiction for a conservative like him, he said. He invoked a maxim from Abraham Lincoln -- government should do for people what they can't do for themselves.
"All Alaskans deserve access to safe, sanitary and affordable housing," he said.
Crawford said Alaska has decided to create agencies that help people get better housing -- so we should use them.
"We've got an army there" at AHFC, Crawford told me. "At least grab the damn rifles and start shooting."
Jim had a lot more to say, and not much of it complimentary, about AHFC and its priorities. I don't yet know enough to judge whether Jim's criticisms are valid -- but I appreciate his passion for improving the lot of Alaskans who are stuck in homes that are falling apart.
-- Matt Zencey
Matt Zencey