f someone asks for the address of a specific location, how quickly would it come to mind—without the help of an internet search? Descriptive terms like “by the local store” or other narrative is common practice, but they aren’t compatible with delivery tracking. Official addresses are a necessity for modern living, yet many rural communities in Alaska have gotten by with informal systems. Lately they are discovering how essential addresses are to the local economy and are working to establish them on official platforms.

Toksook Bay is no stranger to achieving milestones. It was the first city counted in the 2020 Census, and now it’s the first Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta community in the US government’s National Address Database. Until street addresses arrived in February, the village of 638 simply dealt ad hoc with the difficulties associated with ecommerce, government, and finance. However, once the federal government pushed for REAL IDs, city officials started the processes to standardize building locations.

“We recognized the barriers created by the lack of physical addresses for residents trying to obtain REAL IDS, apply for government assistance, or access a lot of modernized services,” says Toksook Bay Mayor Sam Chanar.

To Chanar’s surprise, obtaining addresses was a local responsibility and not that of the US Post Office, as one might imagine. Toksook Bay looked into using maps from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources but determined it wasn’t the right fit. In 2022, Toksook Bay partnered with the Coastal Villages Region Fund’s (CVRF) Geographic Information System (GIS) initiative team and the Alaska Map Company to develop a comprehensive set of local geographic data.

Besides REAL IDs, Chanar says other recent events emphasized the need for official addresses. In addition to providing residents with better access to ecommerce, they ensure accurate census counting and make it easier for eligible voters to register. Also, street addresses eliminate unnecessary barriers to emergency services and, in the aftermath of an emergency, applying for relief aid.

“Many people couldn’t get aid after Typhoon Merbok [in 2022] because they couldn’t complete online applications that required formal addresses,” says Chanar.

Chanar adds that street addresses will further impact the local economy since they enable businesses to establish formal locations recognized by financial institutions and regulatory agencies. This will make it easier for businesses to open bank accounts, secure loans, and register with verifiable addresses. Likewise, entrepreneurs can now register businesses properly, apply for loans or grants, and ship and receive products via online ordering. Additionally, home-based businesses can establish more legitimate presences. He says this foundational infrastructure makes it possible to participate in the modern economy in ways that weren’t feasible before.

“Having street addresses will absolutely influence small businesses and entrepreneurs,” says Chanar. “The simple act of having an address removes one of the barriers that has historically made business development challenging in remote Alaskan communities.”

The reaction to this change has been positive, says Chanar. Toksook Bay sent household surveys providing assigned physical addresses to determine the number of residents without REAL IDs. The response rate was higher compared to the last time, with more coming in. The survey data will help Toksook Bay inform the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles about the estimated number of residents who still need to get REAL IDs.

Assigning addresses to 638 residents and additional businesses might seem like a quick and easy task. However, governments worldwide are becoming increasingly digitized, including the US government and the State of Alaska. If local government doesn’t adopt data standards that fit in a larger schema, residents could have a tough time accessing the benefits they used to be able to get without an address. Though residents have found ways to access many of these services without official street addresses, these workarounds have led to what’s called “drag.” Without an official street address, many ecommerce and government activities become unnecessarily difficult, to the point that many people don’t realistically have the time and energy to navigate the process of getting what they need.

“I’m not going to say it’s impossible, but it definitely gets harder,” says Nathaniel Betz, director of community programs and GIS initiative project manager at CVRF. “We saw that with people trying to access individual assistance from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] after Typhoon Merbok.”

One of the challenges with meeting data standards was experience. CVRF saw a need for more geospatial data in the communities it serves but didn’t want to rely on an outside entity to come in, do the work, and leave a timestamped dataset that would get old fast. Instead, CVRF identified a team of data practitioners already on staff in member communities. CVRF helped facilitate training this group on the GIS platform.

Eventually, CVRF partnered with Alaska Map Company, relying on founder Gary Greenberg’s decades of experience in Alaska land management. In talking with leaders in Toksook Bay, CVRF found a lot of forward-thinking leadership and interest in data-based governance. When those goals dovetailed with Toksook Bay’s need for official street addresses, CVRF partnered to build a community-scale GIS, which became its first full implementation.

“Anyone can make up an address name,” says Betz. “That’s not hard. Most people who have lived in rural Alaska have probably done it at one point in their lives. For most of Alaska’s post-statehood history, this has worked just fine. Many people might not immediately recognize the value unless they are in government and understand how much it helps to have official addresses.”

CVRF used the Esri ArcGIS Pro platform from the Environmental Systems Research Institute to build a dataset, followed by a web-based ArcGIS Hub software to share a public-facing version of the mapping products. The Hub provided a user-friendly way to interact with data and an intuitive interface that made it easy for land managers and government officials to work without becoming experts in a new software package.

Without GIS, Betz says this project would have been much more challenging. Paper mapping would be unwieldy, hard to update, and difficult to integrate with systems like the National Address Database. GIS allows users to visualize data layers, perform spatial analysis, and maintain comprehensive records. Most importantly, it makes the information easier to access through a user-friendly system, ensuring it can be updated and remain relevant for many years to come.

Betz credits Alaska Map Company with helping CVRF realize that developing a community GIS is a multistep process, with addressing pretty far down the line. The GIS initiative began in 2021 with the baseline mapping dataset, including all twenty CVRF villages, as its first big project. Toksook Bay was the first to be mapped, but CVRF needed to generate a lot of data before jumping into the address project. It took a couple of years to cultivate the parcel and land dataset across the region, which served as the context for the addressing process. Once that was complete, the Toksook Bay addressing project gained momentum in 2024.

To create the addresses, CVRF started with twenty-year-old community maps provided by the Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs as the foundation and developed property boundaries as an initial base layer. The GIS team had to add new data to reflect developments over the last couple of decades; however, once that was complete, they had the data tools necessary to start collaborating with member communities on the addressing project.

“The Alaska Map Company provided decades of experience and expertise, guiding us every step of the way,” says Betz. “The unique thing about the company is that it shares our commitment to building a truly community-based team that can create work products infused with essential local knowledge. Our work together has set our GIS team up to lead the addressing process on a highly self-driven basis in our other member communities.”

Betz also credits lead GIS technician Roderick Atti, who lives and works in Toksook Bay. He says Atti’s home base made it easy for him to work directly with local leadership. Collaboration and a great relationship with the community allowed the GIS team to move forward quickly and make addressing a reality.

Toksook Bay’s new official addresses follow National Emergency Number Association standards, linking to plats, deeds, and easements. The data is organized so that, with one click, anyone can verify the accuracy of CVRF’s work and access the source documents. Betz says the fundamental principles used to create addresses follow standards used throughout the country, but their implementation is uniquely adapted to remote Alaska villages.

Eighteen CVRF member communities are smaller than 1,000 people and are organized differently than traditional urban layouts with established grids. GIS teams needed greater flexibility to complete the process for remote communities. This meant revising best practices for municipal land management crafted with more urban communities in mind, so they reflected a distinctive approach that emphasized local sustainability and ownership and helped communities maintain their own systems long-term rather than relying on outside experts with different views of land management needs.

At a high level, Betz says an addressing system is a building block that helps local, state, and federal governments provide effective service to their constituents. Now that these addresses are in place, governments have new tools and are better positioned to serve their people, but that doesn’t mean access will materialize overnight. Currently, signs with address numbers are being made through CVRF’s Youth to Work program. The signs will be delivered to residential and business buildings receiving addresses by the end of July 2025.

“No one person could overcome these challenges on their own,” says Betz. “We built an incredible team that brought together years and years of experience working on governance issues and technology in rural Alaska.”

Chanar agrees that partnerships with experienced organizations like CVRF and Alaska Map Company are crucial. Together, they engaged with the community of Toksook Bay through outreach to educate residents and build support.

“This process took time, but the long-term benefits are absolutely worth it,” says Chanar. “Other rural communities can accomplish what we accomplished. It’s achievable.”