Nobody likes to be a naysayer, or to borrow a phrase from William Safire, a “nattering nabob of negativism”, but the idea of a community hostel as a solution to Jasper housing shortage for seasonal workers is a bad idea.

The basic idea as outlined would see approximately 80 summertime workers staying in a shared-accomodation facility for low rent and a short time. It’s a concept that has supporters on the Fitzhugh editorial board, but I can’t include myself in that group, mostly because I don’t see how the construction of a hostel would do anything except exacerbate the social concerns currently experienced by Jasper.

Right now, workers can find their own place to stay, or live in staff accomodations. The latter is obviously less preferable, but at least people are connected in some way to the place they live. If they are staying at a hostel, there’s even less of a link between themselves and their accommodations. Functioning as a sort of short-term fix for those who arrive in Jasper without prior arrangments, it wouldn’t take long for a new facility to lose its lustre as a steady stream of seasonal employees pass through. Who would manage the property and maintain it? 

Some envision a residence building like the ones found on university and college campuses all over Canada. Imagining such a squalid structure in Jasper makes me cringe. Having very recently emerged from a dark period of living in these accomodations, I can say that while they provide shelter (and in some cases what passes for food) they do little else. Universities heavily subsidize the rates of rent for their residences, and manage them aggressively and extensively. Having a functional residence costs a great deal. It also separates those that live within from the rest of the population. 

In other communities, housing complexes that are almost exclusively populated by younger, short-term workers have a hard-earned reputation as dens of iniquity. They are generally located on the outskirts of the settlement and are not frequented by the rest of the community. Is this the sort of development Jasper needs? 

Rather than segregate the short-termers into a facility that would be expensive to manage and quick to decline, why couldn’t a housing authority purchase a series of units in existing housing complexes and any future developments and reserve these for the use of seasonal employees? This approach would help to integrate the young workers into the community more effectively, as their neighbours and housemates would be longer-term residents of Jasper. Who knows, exposing the new arrivals to a variety of influences might even encourage this working population to get more involved in the community, rather than seeing Jasper as a temporary stop to have a good time.