There’s a housing crisis here that doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.We don’t have enough rental accomodation for people to work here — which is more than a little ironic considering most homes sit empty for a good portion of the year.
And, while it’s true we need more affordable seniors’ housing, the good work done by local volunteers to bring us much needed facilities like Abbeyfield House has inadvertently distracted people from the real problem. The real issue is the lack of "affordable housing."
Sure we have a growing seniors population but do we really want to continue to encourage that? What we need are more juniors.
I hope to retire here someday too but if I do there’ll be a diverse community with a school or two and some residents young enough to do my heavy lifting. If the enrolment in the elementary school continues to decline we might not have one soon. There goes another handful of good-paying, professional jobs and more young families moving out.
Ask any local tourism-based business and they’ll tell you that it was a knd of a weak summer for business. Some might also say that it was probably a good thing because they couldn’t find enough employees to serve the customers they did have.
And it’s only going to get worse. Service industry workers are typically young and short-term who will continually find it harder to live here. I’m in a constant rental search for friends with references who hold good jobs but face leaving because they can’t find a suitable place to live.
It’s time our local government started considering this as they rezone areas to accomodate developers who market their products to wealthy, baby-boomer Albertans. The disproportionate bulge in our demographic has been created by a market that ignores the needs of those without housing equity and it’s unsustainable. It’s a formula that brings aging wealth without offering solutions for maintaining a vital community.
This needs to be addressed soon because the long-term effects are going to be hard to reverse. A start might be to find a way to encourage absentee homeowners to consider renting some of their space to those who missed the real estate boom but might have something positive to offer our community anyway.
Maybe local government could sponsor a program that matches qualified tenants with reluctant landlords by offering tax incentives for those willing to risk the potential hazards of renting.
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