Rediscovering Alaska’s Right to Housing

In the wake of Grants Pass v. Johnson, state constitutions provide an alternative avenue to protect the rights of people experiencing homelessness. While some states contemplate amending their constitutions to encompass a right to housing, this Article argues that such a right already exists in the Alaska Constitution. Article VII, Sections 4 and 5 explicitly direct the legislature to provide for the public health and welfare, and Article I, Section 22 recognizes all Alaskans’ fundamental right to privacy. When read together, these provisions provide for a dual right to housing, encompassing both an affirmative right to adequate and affordable housing, and a corollary negative right to self-shelter. To understand how such a right could be recognized today, Part II of this Article provides an overview of the Alaska Supreme Court’s methods of constitutional interpretation and rights expansion. Part III then applies these methods to existing provisions of the Alaska Constitution to demonstrate how they encompass a right to housing. Section III.A discusses the history of the Alaska Constitution’s Health and Welfare Clauses to illustrate that the text and heritage of the document support a right to adequate and affordable housing. Section III.B then turns to the Privacy Clause to argue that the broader values enshrined in the Alaska Constitution similarly encompass a negative right to self-shelter.