The Whistler Housing Authority (WHA) has continued to see strong demand for both its rental and ownership inventory throughout the pandemic, with “very little turnover” in units, confirmed the organization’s general manager.
“The waitlist continues to be strong, the demand continues to be strong for housing,” said WHA GM Marla Zucht. “We’ll have to wait and see what this winter holds, but we’re just continuing to move forward with the housing that’s still needed for the workforce.”
As of August, the WHA’s ownership waitlist sat at 828 households, while the rental waitlist was at 1,217.
Affordable housing has been a pressing issue in the resort going back years, but the economic reality of COVID-19 has only added urgency to the situation for Whistler’s established workforce, with the RMOW naming the development of additional employee-restricted housing as one of its top “recovery objectives,” according to Mayor Jack Crompton.
More than 100 additional employee beds are set to be added to Whistler’s inventory this winter when the 45-unit rental building at 1330 Cloudburst Drive in Cheakamus Crossing is completed, anticipated for February 2021—five months ahead of schedule.
“We’re thrilled with it,” Zucht said of the timeline. “At the beginning of COVID, we were bracing for the fact that the construction sites might get shut down. We had a whole site shutdown plan in place if we needed to, if it was mandated by the government, but fortunately it didn’t.
“We were able to keep moving along really quickly.”
Managed by Durfeld Construction, the development will feature a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, an underground parkade and in-suite storage.
The WHA is also readying the launch of a new online portal for applicants on the rental waitlist. The portal gives prospective renters the chance to view their waitlist standing, identify their preferred rental properties, and update their application details.
Already in place for the ownership waitlist, Zucht said the portal is “just part of our constant improvements to the program and modernizing our IT infrastructure.
“COVID certainly gave us a needed boost to get this going but this has been in the works since last year,” she added. “It will be more efficient for people on the waitlist and give them the opportunity to be able to navigate it on their own and to check on their status when they want to and update it.”
The portal will also give the WHA a more fulsome view of rental demand in real time, as previously, waitlist members had to either call, email or stop by the office in person to check on their waitlist status or indicate their preferred properties.
“It will be more efficient for us and we will get more information to better be able to plan for new projects,” Zucht said.
All existing WHA rental waitlist members will be given access to the online applicant portal shortly.
