Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This 1975 KTVF-TV news report captures the early days of the pipeline-era housing crunch in Fairbanks, Alaska. The housing shortage was sparked by the trans-Alaska pipeline construction boom, when thousands of workers began arriving to the state. Filmed in June 1975, the segment features interviews with boarding house occupants about the lack of housing availability, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s efforts to regulate boarding or rooming houses through its zoning laws.
One homeowner, Albert Cannon, is at the center of the controversy. Charged with operating a small residential home occupied by 44 people, Cannon defends his situation on camera, and several tenants voice their support for him. Borough Mayor John Carlson also weighs in, discussing possible solutions to the housing crisis, including the creation of campgrounds for new arrivals (Color/Sound/16mm film).
This sequence contains excerpts from AAF-6058 from the KTVF-TV collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
This 1975 KTVF-TV news report captures the early days of the pipeline-era housing crunch in Fairbanks, Alaska. The housing shortage was sparked by the trans-Alaska pipeline construction boom, when thousands of workers began arriving to the state. Filmed in June 1975, the segment features interviews with boarding house occupants about the lack of housing availability, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s efforts to regulate boarding or rooming houses through its zoning laws.
One homeowner, Albert Cannon, is at the center of the controversy. Charged with operating a small residential home occupied by 44 people, Cannon defends his situation on camera, and several tenants voice their support for him. Borough Mayor John Carlson also weighs in, discussing possible solutions to the housing crisis, including the creation of campgrounds for new arrivals (Color/Sound/16mm film).
This sequence contains excerpts from AAF-6058 from the KTVF-TV collection held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives Department in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks. For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
The Alaska Film Archives appreciates your support. Your donation in any amount will help us continue important preservation work. Please visit the “About” section of our YouTube channel to learn how you can help today. Thank you! For more information please contact the Alaska Film Archives.
