It's all part of an economic development plan forged by local tribal officials, with help from the federal Rural Community Assistance Corp. "In five years, hopefully, Lord willing, we will achieve a greater degree of self-sufficiency," said Jerry Isaac, chairman of the board of Dihthaad Development LLC., a holding company for the Native Village of Tanacross.

Isaac, a nephew of the late traditional Athabascan chief Andrew Isaac, is on a mission to relieve this community of 137 people of government dependence. "It's a huge task," he said. Once the housing project is completed, Isaac said the community hopes to see the return of 50 to 80 residents, who left because of lack of housing and jobs.

Potential future jobs could come with the building of a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48. "They are going to have to go through our land, so we're hoping to negotiate some good contracts," Isaac said.

Meanwhile, an open house is set for Oct. 7 to show off the first of the completed homes. Full occupancy is expected by late December, officials said.

Isaac said economic development plans call for a host of entrepreneurial pursuits.

"I've issued strict orders for diversification: construction, developing tourism, real estate, equipment rentals, management, retail, partnership investments, and being part owner of a hotel," Isaac said. "Anyone of them, the market might go bad, but at least you would have those other businesses."

At the root of this plan are the 20 new homes to be occupied by December. The homes are being built with materials purchased from R-Valued Homes Ltd., of Wasilla, under a University of Alaska Fairbanks approved construction education program that employs community residents. The resident workers are supervised by R-Valued Homes.

When Congress passed the Native American Housing Self-Determination Act in 1996, Native communities were given the option of working through regional housing authorities, or taking their share of the allocation and administering it themselves.

"Tanacross chose to self-perform," said Jeff Weltzin, of the Federal Rural Community Assistance Corp., which provides technical assistance in community development. "The first few years, they just built one house a year, with about $150,000. Then we got involved to help them use those funds to leverage other resources."

Three years ago, Weltzin started applying the annual dollar allocation for Tanacross as matching funds. "We got $500,000 from the federal Indian Community Development block grant program, and partnered with Wells Fargo in Anchorage to apply to the Seattle Federal Home Loan Bank's affordable housing program," he said. That deal yielded about $200,000 in private funds.

Then he went to the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., and competed for allocation of low-income housing tax credits, an Internal Revenue Service program that gives developers of affordable housing tax credits, which they in turn sell to the private sector to reduce tax burden. "We got $3.6 million in tax credits which we partnered with Key Development Corp., a subsidiary of Key Bank, which agreed to purchase the tax credits for 81 cents on the dollar," Weltzin said. As a result, Tanacross generated from the private sector $2.9 million for the housing project.

The final chunk of funds came from working with the Rural Community Assistance Corp. loan fund, taking out a $800,000 permanent loan, to be paid back by future annual Native American Housing Self-Determination Act funds.

Putting that all together, Tanacross had $4.8 million to construct 20 highly energy-efficient, three- and four-bedroom homes. The houses are heated with state-of-the-art oil heaters, and for back up have energy-efficient wood stoves. In Tanacross, where winter temperatures can drop to 75 degrees below zero, energy efficiency is especially important.

The homes, built of foam panels with an R-50 insulation value, are complete with a water and sewer system. Under the federal low-income housing tax program, they will be rented to occupants for 15 years under a lease-to-own program. At the end of 15 years, the tenants will have the right of first refusal on purchase, Weltzin said.

Meanwhile, a market study is underway to further address the housing needs of Tanacross. "We have identified the need for an eight- to 10-unit apartment complex and some additional single-family homes," Weltzin said.

All this development is part of a plan conceived in 1993, when the people of Tanacross drafted a long-range comprehensive community development plan, Isaac said. "The overall plan was coordinated development, that would result in trying to create permanent jobs for the people."

From the initial plan came Dihthaad Development LLC., which now oversees Dihthaad Global Services, Dihthaad Environmental, Dihthaad Global Security, Mansfield Equipment and Mansfield Property Management. Dihthaad Global Services is the construction entity overseeing the housing projects. Dihthaad Development is a subsidiary of the Native Village of Tanacross, the official village corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.

Isaac said he is convinced that through the calculated use of the free enterprise system, being a small tribe, the chances of success and actually reaping real benefits are more likely possible than with a larger corporation.

Isaac acknowledged it's a struggle managing all these business affairs, but he said he also has a message for other rural Alaska communities. "If Tanacross can take up the struggle and accept greater degrees of responsibility and do the best they can, that opportunity is available to anyone," he said. "It doesn't matter what size the village is, as long as you have commitment and resolve. You can do it."

Isaac said once the community started to demonstrate that they were in for the long haul, and there was no turning back, government agencies started to work with them. "Right now we have pretty good partners out there, and private industry is starting to have an ear open to us," he said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska