Wow, have you noticed the reaction since we last spoke about this wonderfully annoying phenomenon we have here?
There’s been several more letters about employee housing. Sixteen families around Tapley’s Farm even sent a letter to the mayor asking for the council to stay calm in light of the "political pressure" for more employee housing.
Then the mayor said the council was now working harder on some opportunities, which have actually been around for years.
I can also tell you that some very experienced Whistlerites have sent some other letters to my private e-mail.
These people were keen to keep their views confidential, mostly, because they didn’t want to be seen commenting about anything that involved race/gender profiling, which I told you about a month ago.
I would now like to anonymously share some of these views so you can: a.) get a better understanding of the issue; b.) write more letters and send some more recommendations to council, and the WHA, or whomever else you think might be able to alleviate this ongoing problem.
I left my last story with the notion that I’d like council to approve more employee housing sooner rather than later. And I still believe this is something that should happen but it’s really only a band-aid response.
The whole purpose of that first article was to prove, beyond any doubt, that the housing situation is very bad, it’s ongoing and it’s in your face. The fact is that it will always be difficult to find a place to live in the lead up to winter, that’s why many workers arrive in September.
But life is not black and white – sometimes relatives die unexpectedly, visas get held up, flights get cancelled and banks freeze accounts for no reason.
So, for whatever reason, sometimes good people arrive in Whistler in late October, early November.
If they’re serious, these people find jobs, regardless of how hard it is and, in a perfect world, this is also when their mission to find a house should also be resolved.
Because the housing situation here is so bad at the start of winter, anyone who employs anyone in this area should also be providing housing.
"As a new boy in town, try to remember this problem has existed for more than 35 years at Whistler," one Whistlerite said in a personal e-mail.
"In the old days there was no such thing as Employee or so-called Affordable Housing. The business owners would purchase condos and houses and rent them to their staff at ‘affordable’ rates.
"It is not the RMOW, WHA and Steve Bayly who should look after you, it is the employer, and if the employer cannot afford it (based on their annual income audit) they should be subsidized."
Later another e-mail arrived with much the same advice.
"If the powers that be build to handle the end of November syndrome then come May we will have a hell of a lot of empty places.
"I always thought allowing the construction of low rise apartments for rental would be wise. Since the muni made the mistake of allowing developers to contribute to a housing fund as a way of getting out of supplying their own employee accommodation, perhaps they could use the dollars collected for that concept?
"But it is my opinion that if 5,000 units were built for this market today, we would see a line up of 7,000 people and the Pique headline would read ‘2,000 people out in the cold’.
"The math doesn't work for me. I know it's a cliche to state my taxes are already crazy, but they are, $6,800 this year, and I don't make a lot of dough, and having my local Gov. pressured into spending their budget on solving this seasonal housing thing doesn't sit too well.
"Whistler-Blackcomb has done a great job and should be used as an example. With my business, cheap housing is offered to staff. The house I described to you in the last letter stills rents at $1,000 per month, hydro in.
"A good bit of advice to potential residents here would be to sign a year lease in May when there’s lot's of places to choose from. And word of mouth is still the best way to find that place. Only the really bad ones end up in the paper (sorry Bob)."
So there’s two opinions around the same kind of plan: employers providing employee housing.
Here’s another idea, which is based on what the Green Party’s candidate, Andrea Goldsmith, said to me during the last federal election.
On a stroll around one of Whistler’s better neighbourhoods Goldsmith pointed out that there really wasn’t a housing shortage in Whistler.
There are huge houses everywhere owned by wealthy people that rarely use them. So what about some kind of bylaw that stops second homeowners from closing their doors permanently when they’re not here?
The embattled Whistler Housing Authority, or WHA, could also hold a housing seminar at the start of every winter season for all the newbies to let them know what they’re up against.
The municipality could work at increasing the number of buses going to and from Pemberton so the idea of living there wouldn’t be so inconvenient for newbies who don’t have cars.
Either way, I knew I had to write a part two to this saga when I met a skilled construction worker who was staying at a bed and breakfast.
And he said "my boss is going to have to put back some of this work because he can’t find anywhere for his crews to stay."
Some of these solutions are drastic but, I’m sorry, the situation is that bad.
