Ketchikan has job potential. Alaska had 21 years of job gains up until 2009. After a year without, Alaska added 1,800 jobs in 2010 and 5,200 in 2011, according to the Alaska Department of Labor.

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Former Ketchikan resident Mike Thomas, 47, died Dec. 20, 2011, in Mohave, Ariz. He was born in Salem, Ore., on Nov. 25, 1964, but was raised in Ketchikan.

Ketchikan is on the precipice of a housing shortage.

That's opportunity.

A local real estate agent says the housing shortage will be the featured topic of a Ketchikan Planning Liaison and Economic Development committee meeting Friday.

The shortage is likely to increase in severity before it is relieved.

To begin with, Ketchikan had a light winter. This allowed the construction industry to work through the season.

Its workers - at least those from out of town - continued to rent apartments and houses December, January and February.

Couple that with anticipated construction at Ketchikan Shipyard, where a recent study shows that the workforce could triple as the shipyard is expanded into a world-class facility. Another $111 million in improvements are planned at the shipyard.

The workers will need housing.

Highway construction is scheduled this summer on both North and South Tongass highways and on Tongass Avenue. Those projects also will have at least some workers from out of town.

The U.S. Coast Guard will have its usual influx with transfers occurring over the summertime. Ketchikan General Hospital, like the Coast Guard, has regular additions from outside the community.

That doesn't include workers who come to town for the summer tourism industry or for other purposes.

Some of the workers rent while in Ketchikan. Some rent until they can buy a home.

But the current economy makes the latter more of a challenge. The federal government bailed the banking industry out during an economic recession. Because the recession isn't over, and probably because of what has occurred during the recession, banks are not as free with their loans. They simply give more scrutiny to each loan, if someone is willing to go into debt or deeper debt.

That's not to say that loans aren't available.

They are. It's just that some that would have been approved before the recession aren't getting the green light in today's economy.

The real estate agent says the local real estate industry has listings, a pretty constant list. Some might have been on the market a long time because they are priced too high for the market. Others might be unfairly priced, he says. But there is a healthy market for houses priced up to $300,000.

It isn't good that Ketchikan might be facing a housing shortage. It impedes growth and development.

But it is good that Ketchikan needs that much housing. It means that people are moving into the community to work. They have jobs, and jobs are good anytime. Jobs build an economy.

Of all the types of problems a community might encounter, finding new housing for people with jobs is a good one. It is one that can be solved, and drawing an economic development committee into the discussion will be one way to address it.