Дефицит жилья в Скагвее вынуждает город полагаться на круизные лайнеры и отказываться от независимых туристов

Skagway’s housing shortage has impacted year-round residents, seasonal employees, business owners and people who might want to move here. But in the next installment of The Skagway Shuffle, KHNS contributor Molly McCluskey looks at how it’s also negatively impacting the heart of the town’s economy – its visitors. This year, Skagway will have fewer independent travelers, and fewer hotel rooms to accommodate them, than ever before. Which means the town will be more reliant than ever on the expected 1.4 million cruise ship passengers to keep its economy going, and fewer options for those who want to come any other way. According to Jaime Bricker with the Skagway Visitor Department, Skagway has about 150 hotel rooms available in the summer. That’s down from 245 in 2009. In the winter, there are 29 rooms available. Seventeen years ago, there were 74. She also says the loss of properties like the Golden North Hotel and Wind Valley Lodge likely accounts for dozens more rooms. Those numbers don’t include short-term rentals like VRBO or Airbnb. But they do reflect a broader shift — hotels being converted, in part or entirely, into seasonal housing. That’s what happened with Sergeant Preston’s which Mike Healy purchased during the pandemic to house his employees. He said he did so reluctantly. “…I didn’t want to purchase Sergeant Preston’s. The Valentines, who are friends of mine, had been approaching me for a couple of years saying, hey, we’d like to sell this to you. And I kept saying, well, if I buy it, it’s for housing. It’s not a hotel anymore.” Healy said he gave the town an ultimatum. “I approached the city and said, hey, Municipality of Skagway, I am going to purchase the only year‑round hotel in this community if you don’t free up some land for housing,” Healy said. “And I bugged them for a while and sat on that for a year. And they did nothing, and so we purchased Sergeant Preston’s.” Healy said the decision to convert one of the town’s few remaining year-round hotels into housing wasn’t one he took lightly. “I saw the spiral that was gonna happen. If you don’t have a year‑round hotel, people are gonna Airbnb their homes to fill that gap, and then that furthers the housing problem,” he said. “So I really think this is on the municipality on a number of levels, starting decades ago. But that was a big turning point right there.” Hotels in Skagway don’t just accommodate visitors in the summer. In the winter, they house contractors, state workers, and seasonal employees coming to do critical work in town and along the highway. With just a few dozen rooms available, Skagway relies on an informal system to house the people it needs. Business owners keep a kind of mental list of what units are open, who might be leaving town, and where there’s space — sharing that information as workers come in. Business owner David Brena is one of the people helping make that system work. “In some of my contracts … I give them a lesser rate on the apartments in return for the right for me to be able to use the apartments in the wintertime,” he said. That allows him to house workers when options are limited. “So in those cases, I can lease them to people that are looking in the winter,” Brena said. “But more importantly to me is that because of the limited ability to hire contractors in town, I can bring in outside specialty contractors, like drywallers or electricians or whatever from, say, Juneau. And have a place to put them up.” Mike Healy does the same with Sergeant Prestons. But still, even with the spare hotel rooms, Assembly member Jonathan Hillis said the lack of available space hinders the town’s ability to cater to independent travelers. “Independent travelers don’t really want to come to Skagway when there’s 1,000 cruise ship passengers in port,” he said. “And I think we have a lot of room to balance the two right now.” The shift is also reflected in the town’s tourism office. The erosion of hotel accommodations inspired the name change of the department from the Skagway Convention and Visitors Bureau to the Skagway Visitor Department. According to Tourism Director Bricker, the town can no longer realistically support conventions. And promoting independent and shoulder season tourism has also become increasingly challenging due to the lack of available infrastructure for accommodations. Between declining hotel inventories, RV parks shifting away from long‑term stays, and businesses converting lodging into seasonal housing, Skagway is narrowing the options for anyone who wants to come here outside of a cruise ship cabin. And for those who come here and want to stay, the options are even fewer. Molly’s reporting from Skagway was made possible by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and KHNS.