West Sacramento, Calif. — Joe Waters, Regional Housing Manager for Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), recently added Alaska as part of the territory he oversees.

Waters’ managerial region also includes RCAC’s Arizona, New Mexico and California offices.

Headquartered in West Sacramento, California, and serving 13 western states, RCAC provides technical assistance and training to rural and tribal communities seeking to develop a wide range of community services including, among other things, affordable housing and water treatment facilities. The organization also operates a loan fund with nearly $60 million in lending capitol that provides low interest loans and grants to further these communities’ goals.

RCAC currently employs two staff members in Alaska, Jeff Wetzin is a housing specialist in the organization’s Fairbanks office and Roland Shanks is an environmental specialist in the Anchorage office. While Waters will now take on supervising RCAC’s affordable housing efforts in Alaska, George Schlender will continue to manage the environmental side of RCAC’s work in the state. Schlender also manages RCAC’s environmental services in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Hawaii. RCAC has provided technical assistance, training and loans to native villages and communities in Alaska’s rural areas for the past several years.

"Jeff and Roland have significantly expanded RCAC’s work in Alaska over the past five years, but the need remains great. I look forward to working with RCAC staff in Alaska to increase the number of communities we are able to serve each year,” said Waters. “The brightest days are before us.”

RCAC’s Alaska staff has many tools to assist clients. These tools include using self-help housing (where the number of organizations participating in this group effort to use sweat equity to offset rising housing costs is expected to more than double in the next year) and establishing housing tax credits for providing rental housing affordable to very-low income native village residents.

RCAC is also involved in using recycling, reuse, and other innovative approaches to reduce the amount of solid waste being created; and employing construction methodologies to reduce the cost and volume of energy resources.