Affordable Housing In Fairbanks
Fairbanks North Star Borough Alaska

Waiting List Openings In Fairbanks

24 Low Income Apartment Communities In Fairbanks

There are 24 low income housing apartment complexes which contain 1,072 affordable apartments for rent in Fairbanks. Many of these rental apartments are income based housing with 612 apartments that set rent based on your income. In Fairbanks, HUD housing programs support 392 rental assistance apartments through programs like Project-based Section 8. There are 460 other low income apartments that don't have rental assistance but are cheaper than market rate rents.

Housing Authorities that serve Fairbanks

Guide To Affordable Housing in Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks, AK Affordable Housing Snapshot

Population and Household Demographics

Fairbanks is a City in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska with a population of 32,193. There are 11,228 households in the city with an average household size of 2.67 persons. 64.03% of households in Fairbanks are renters.

Income and Rent Overburden in Fairbanks

The median gross income for households in Fairbanks is $55,229 a year, or $4,602 a month. The median rent for the city is $1,259 a month.

Households who pay more than thirty percent of their gross income are considered to be Rent Overburdened. In Fairbanks, a household making less than $4,197 a month would be considered overburdened when renting an apartment at or above the median rent. 55.31% of households who rent are overburdened in Fairbanks.¹

Area Median Income In Fairbanks

Affordable housing program eligibility is always determined by one's income. Each household's income is compared to the incomes of all other households in the area. This is accomplished through a statistic established by the government called the Area Median Income, most often referred to as AMI. The AMI is calculated and published each year by HUD.

HUD often uses an area larger than a city to determine the AMI because HUD anticipates those searching for housing will look beyond individual cities during their housing search. For Fairbanks, the AMI is calculated from all households within Fairbanks North Star Borough.

In Fairbanks, HUD calculates the Area Median Income for a family of four as $92,400

Most affordable housing programs determine eligibility based on the percent of AMI a given household's income is. Among the programs that determine eligibility based on the AMI are Section 8, HOME, LIHTC, Section 515, 202 and 811.

Rental Assistance in Fairbanks

Rental assistance is a type of housing subsidy that pays for a portion of a renter’s monthly housing costs, including rent and tenant paid utilities. This housing assistance can come in the form of Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, project-based Section 8 contracts, public housing, USDA Rental Assistance (in Section 515 properties) as well as HUD Section 202 and 811 properties for elderly and disabled households.

Income Qualifications for Fairbanks HUD Rental Assistance in Fairbanks

Low Income Housing Tax Credits in Fairbanks

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program aims to create affordable rental housing for low and very low income families.

From 1989 to 2011, 7 low income apartment communities containing 518 rental apartments have been constructed and made affordable to low income persons in Fairbanks by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program.

If your income is less than 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), you should not expect to pay more than the rent value for a unit in the table below. However, Affordable apartment communities that receive funding through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program may have rental units that are not subject to income and rent limits.

Rent limits for the LIHTC Program are determined so that a household making the maximum income for the expected household size of the unit would only pay 30% of their income for rent.

Income Qualifications for Low Income Housing Tax Credit Apartments in Fairbanks

For example, the expected household size for a two bedroom apartment is 3 people. Using the table above, the maximum income for a 3 person household at 60% of the AMI in Fairbanks is $49,920 a year, or $4,160 a month. To determine the maximum rent in the table below we multiply the monthly maximum income, $4,160 by 30% to get a maximum rent of $1,248 a month.

Rent for units in the LIHTC Program include a utility allowance which is determined by the average monthly cost of utilities paid directly by residents. This allowance has not been subtracted from the rents in the table below. These utility allowances are set on a property by property basis.

Fair Market Rents in Fairbanks

Fair Market Rents, often abbreviated as FMR, can be used to better understand the average housing costs of an area. Notably, Fair Market Rents are used to establish the payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, maximum rents in HOME financed rental projects and initial rents for Section 8 project based assistance.

2019 Fair Market Rents