Wondering about low income housing in Anchorage (Wasilla, Palmer: section 8, apartments)

[billiejeanne10]

Me and my husband are relocating to Anchorage in September and I'm beginning to look at houses. We would like to save money and not spend our whole check on rent. I came across "Strawberry Village Cottages and saw that they had regulations about your income being a certain amount in order to live there. We qualify...but, does anyone know about this neighborhood? Is it safe for a wife to be alone in (husband is in the Army and will be gone quite a bit)? Please be honest! We aren't able to go see where we are going to live. We have to rely on pictures and people's word. Do you have any other recommendations for housing that would cost about $1000-$1400 for rent? (we don't want to live on Fort Richardson)

Looking forward to your help!

[roadfamily6now]

Fort Rich is very nice and they have some brand new HUGE housing.
You could also try Eagle River, it's going to be about as far as Strawberry Village from work.
I'm sorry I don't know about Low Income Housing here, but I know that if you want Section 8 there is a 6 - 18 month wait depending upon need. My SIL and her family have been living with us for the past 7 months waiting to get a place............

[AKStafford]

If your husband doesn't mind a commute when he's home there's also the Valley (Wasilla or Palmer). House tends to be a little cheaper out here.

[stiffnecked]

What's wrong with living on Fort Rich? It's one of the safest places in town. My daughter lives on the Elmendorf side and it's very nice.

[gobrien]

Strawberry Village is privately owned and may not have the same waiting list issues I think.

[Sava_baby]

I understand your point about not wanting to spend your whole BAH on housing, BUT it really is worth it! Gas at the Shoppette is cheaper, shopping at the Commissary is much cheaper, the housing is very very nice, wait lists for 2 bedrooms are days and you are 100% safe. No huge deposit for anything, and since it's a joint base, you can live on the AF side if you want to, we do and DH is Army. We rented off post for our first year here and had a nice little 1100 SQF one bath house in a very nice neighborhood for 1800 everything included until our landlord decided to raise rent by 300, so we received emergency housing/ didn't have enough money saved up to pay security deposit, pet deposit, utility setup, etc. We now live in a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house (and yes we have no kids, the 3rd bedroom is only 10x10 and by AF regulations too small to be considered a bedroom), roughly 1800 SQF, garage, back yard, the works. It is by far the nicest place we have ever lived in in the past 8 years of Army life. If you truly have your heart set on living off post, try AHRN.com. They have a list of houses/apartments in your husband's BAH rates. You do need to add at least 300 a month for utilities off post though, potentially more in the Winter, since you're qualifying for Strawberry Cottages I'm assuming you hubby is junior enlisted, so you have basically 1200 for rent, which will hardly get you something safe in this town.
Just my personal opinion, though. All I can tell you is that I didn't want to move on post and now think that taking housing is the best decision we could've ever made.

[spaghetticat]

Strawberry area is great, but if your husband is in the military I doubt you will qualify for section 8.

[LittleJazzyP]

Section 8 and other low-income housing is supposed to be for people who have no other alternative. It sounds to me like you do. The base sounds nice. Enjoy it, and please do not compete with people who lack other options.

[mistymountain]

The base is actually nice. I had a friend on base and she had a nice place and the people where really nice. If you don't want to live on base look up the address on trulia and if you scroll down there is a map where you can select crime and schools and that will give you an idea of the safety of the neighborhood.