For decades Jasper's zero per cent rental vacancy has scared away potential seasonal workers who have been unable to find a permanent place to lay their heads at the end of a days work.
It's an issue that has plagued overworked business owners for years, as visitation numbers continue to rise, and help wanted signs remain plastered in store windows with no response.
It's the same old story each and every year. But, the Jasper Community Housing Corporation (JCHC) is hoping to rewrite the ending.
Beginning this week, the JCHC is inviting business owners and residents to participate in the planning and design of two new housing developments that could—at least temporarily—relieve Jasper's housing shortfall, providing staff housing for businesses, as well as market value housing for seniors.
Currently the JCHC is considering two plots of land, which have been tentatively set aside for development. There is a parcel of land at the west end of Connaught Drive with a maximum build-out of 43 apartment-style units or 21 condo-style units. The second parcel is on the 800 block of Turret Street and is currently home to a number of Parks Canada staff. It's maximum build out is 27 units.
“Those apartments are at the end of their life and they need to be recapitalized,” said Cathy Jenkins, reality and municipal manager for Parks and a liaison on the JCHC.
She said the plan is to redevelop a lot on the corner of Pine Avenue and Patricia Street with an eight-plex to house the staff currently living on Turret Street and to tear down the old apartments on Turret, making room for new staff and seniors housing.
“Parks Canada would be a part of that project with business owners and seniors and whoever comes out of this request for interest,” said Jenkins.
The JCHC is asking business owners and seniors who might be interested in purchasing units within the developments to get in touch by Feb. 25.
It's a quick turn around, but Mark Fercho, the town's chief administrative officer and chair of the JCHC, said it's time to move forward.
“When I came in as the new chair [of the housing corporation], all I heard from the group was that there's been enough studies.
There's been enough research done on the need, it's time to address the need,” he said.
“These sites may not work for everybody, but once we get started with this we can hopefully keep working on it and doing something about the need for housing, instead of just saying it's a tough situation.
“We need to start working together on some solutions and this is the first step in that process.”
For years, the business community has been arguing that chronic staff shortages are caused by the community's lack of housing and the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce has been advocating for housing developments to help those businesses attract and retain staff.
Pattie Pavlov, general manager of the chamber, welcomed the news of potential housing developments.
“I'm encouraged,” she said. “Housing is absolutely without a doubt one of the most critical things that we need. We're getting busier—all indications are we're going to have a busy summer—and if we don't have people to serve the visitors who are coming here then it's all undone. If you're going to bring more guests here, we need to get more workers here and we need to have somewhere for them to live, that's the bottom line.
“I've lived here 24 years and housing has been an issue from day one, so it's refreshing to see that there's something that's becoming more and more concrete as the days go by. I'm excited about it and I'm really hoping that it's going to make a difference.”
Fercho said, ultimately, the goal is to help businesses by creating much needed staff housing and to help seniors by providing alternative housing options, so they can downsize from their full-sized homes.
“There's seniors here still living in homes that they don't want to live in that a small family coming to town could certainly use, so this creates an opportunity for housing for families, as well as for seniors,” he said.
After business owners and residents express their interest, they will be asked to provide a financial contribution to put toward the cost of the design of the development.
When the design is complete, the lots will be appraised to determine the cost of the land release from Parks Canada. Once that is completed, Fercho said the housing corporation will have a package that it can put out to potential developers.
“For a developer to come to Jasper there's no success because they see it as a federal park—it's expensive land and there's a lot of unknowns,” he said. “But at the end of the day, a developer will develop if there's profit to be made.
“So, in this case the housing corp is going through the steps, identifying the pieces of land, figuring out the site capacities, doing some preliminary design work, compiling a list of interested buyers and starting the process of the land release with Parks Canada, so we've got a package that we can put out to a developer, to say, here's the site, here's what it will look like, here's the people that are interested in buying it and here's what it takes to get the land released.
“At the end of the day, a developer will develop if there's profit to be made, so it's getting all of this legwork done so ... a developer can look at it and decide if they want to do the project and make a buck or not. That's the trick.”
Businesses and seniors interested in participating in the design of the proposed housing developments can contact the JCHC by phone at 780-852-6504 or by email at [email protected].
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
