| The Bristol Bay Campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (BBC-UAF) is located in Dillingham, Alaska. A nonresidential four-year public university, it serves more than 30 Native villages in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska and beyond. The Bristol Bay region covers about 40,000 square miles-the size of Ohio. Three of Alaska's major ethnic Native groups (Yup'ik Eskimos, Athabascans, and Aleuts) live in the region. In 1990, there were 6,972 inhabitants, 66% of whom were Alaskan Native.
Limited economic opportunities make subsistence hunting and fishing a very significant contributor to the regional economy. The two transportation hubs in the region, Dillingham and King Salmon, have fairly stable year-round economies consisting of commercial fisheries, government jobs, transportation employment, and service industries. For the other 28 communities in Bristol Bay, the commercial fishing and subsistence activities are seasonal and there are few employment alternatives. The Bristol Bay salmon fishery provides 16% of the world's salmon. However, 60% of the value of the fish harvested each year is exported to fishermen who live outside of the state, and the winter unemployment rate in the villages exceeds 55%. In the summers of 1998 and 1999, the numbers of salmon returning to the Bristol Bay were drastically reduced, resulting in two successive Presidentially declared natural economic disasters. The trend continued in 2000 and was similar in 2001.
The Bristol Bay villages of Chignik Bay, Chignik Lake, Pilot Point, Port Heiden, and Uhashik are located on the Alaska Peninsula. Twin Hills is located north of the peninsula approximately 200 miles to the west. The six villages all have small populations, ranging from 6 to 188, and share many common attributes as a result of their proximity to the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. The cost of living in the region is the second highest in the state. In the 25 villages that participate in the Bristol Bay Indian Housing Block Grant Program, 57.2% of families had incomes below 80% of median income. Several hundred families live in substandard housing or overcrowded conditions or both. After the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, there were 24 for-profit Native Village Corporations formed to invest and manage the land and fund conveyances in the region. There also are 30 nonprofit Village Councils/IRAs that provide for the social and economic well-being of residents of the region.
The Bristol Bay Housing Authority is scheduled to construct a number of new homes or modernize existing housing stock in these villages over the next several years. Most of the jobs for new housing construction generally are filled by persons who do not live in the village in which the construction is taking place, and even when local workers are hired, the highest wage rates are usually paid to nonresident specialists. To address the severe employment and affordable housing problems in the Bristol Bay region, BBC-UAF is providing construction training and homebuying assistance to residents in the six villages. Partnering with BBC-UAF in this effort are the Bristol Bay Housing Authority, the Tribal/Village Councils of the villages, the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Alaska Works (Labor Unions) Partnership, and King Salmon Voc Tech.
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