Denis Khatman is the owner of Prudent Builders, a small construction company in Delta Junction. He immigrated to the United States decades ago from Kazakhstan, by way of Latvia, and he’s deeply embedded in the area’s Slavic culture.
Khatman takes a lot of pride in his work. As he wandered through the halls of one of his works-in-progress, a two-story craftsman home, he pointed out his favorite features — a spacious garage, “Alaska-style” wooden finishes.
In the corner, Olekseii Butenko was sanding down a door frame. Butenko worked in construction back in Ukraine, but he says things are a bit different here — he’s not used to Alaska’s severe winds or frozen ground, but he’s adjusting.
Butenko fled Ukraine with his wife and seven children after the invasion and then joined relatives who had already settled down in Delta Junction
“The war came,” Butenko said. “We left everything there, we didn’t sell anything. My brother always told me that life in America is better.”
Now, Ukrainian workers like Butenko are filling much-needed jobs in Alaska. Many of them work in construction, building homes in the midst of a statewide housing crunch. But after the suspension of some programs that were supporting their stay, their future employment — and their ability to stay in the U.S. — are in jeopardy.
Ukrainians are building homes while building new lives in Alaska
Butenko said that during his first winter in Alaska, he found himself hard up for work, with many mouths to feed at home. He met his future boss, Khatman, while they were helping renovate their church.
“Two hours later, he calls me back and said, ‘Listen, why didn’t you tell me you are out of work? Come work for me!’ It was that simple,” he said. “I started to work for him, and he tells me, ‘You know, I like how you work, you should stay.’ And, God bless, it’s been two years now.”
Khatman said Ukrainian workers add a lot to his business and to the local economy.
“They work hard, they will do any job,” he said. “Everybody wants to grow. Everybody wants to have a house or land or a new car. So they're willing to work and willing to do things that I guess some people don't want to do.”
Alaska is starved for affordable homes — and able bodies to build them
Meanwhile, Alaska is experiencing a major affordable housing shortage. Chris Kolerok, a policy advisor with the Cook Inlet Housing Authority, said many communities are reaching critical mass. A 2023 Agnew Beck study found that Alaska needs to build or renovate 27,500 housing units over the next decade to meet current demand. According to Kolerok, that’s going to be a difficult bar to clear.
“When you think through the population of the state of Alaska, that's quite a lot per capita,” he said. “We’ve only been building about between 10 and 25% of the homes needed to keep up with population growth and natural decay of homes.”
At the same time, demand for the people who can build those houses is booming. Karinne Wiebold, an economist with the state Department of Labor, said Alaska’s net migration has been negative for many years now, and the state struggles to attract working-age adults.
Wiebold said construction jobs have been soaring across the board for several consecutive years — from federal infrastructure projects to oil and gas development to the kind of specialty contracting Denis Khatman does.
“In 2024, there were even more jobs in construction,” she said. “We saw 1,400 new jobs, and average annual wages increased another 9% again, showing that this is a high-demand industry where they're really looking at attracting new workers.”
Laying a foundation on shaky ground
Many of Delta Junction’s Ukrainian refugees say they’re relying on their faith to get them through the uncertainty of not knowing whether they’ll be able to stay. Meanwhile, Khatman said he and his team will just keep building houses.
He hopes his friends and employees will get to keep working toward a better life, safely away from the war zone.
“This is what America provides,” he said. “Like, you know: ‘Hey, you want to work? You will get it.’ So, that's why we are here. We want to raise up America and have a better life.”
As for Butenko — he says that through all the confusion and precarity, he doesn’t look back on Ukraine. He says he wouldn’t want to stay here illegally, but he hopes it never comes to that. For now, he’s just focused on putting down roots in Alaska.