ATHABASCA – What do you think of the current state of housing in Athabasca County, the town of Athabasca, and the village of Boyle?
If you were at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex June 25, or the Boyle Farmers Market June 26, you may have been asked that question as part of an ongoing assessment into the housing needs of the region being conducted by the three municipalities.
Urban planning specialists ran two open houses last week where they asked locals a variety of questions about what kind of housing they would like to see, if they felt their own housing was adequate, and 26 other questions as part of the survey.
“We’ve had more participation than we originally thought, sometimes it’s hard to get folks to talk about housing,” said Tristan Scholten, one half of the duo running the engagement.
“We’ve had lots of good conversations and some major themes have emerged that are pretty consistent across the town and village. There’s a severe lack of rentals available and people are fighting very hard to find places.”
The survey is the second part of the housing assessment, which will culminate later this month when the report gets presented to the three municipal councils. Scholten and his colleague Andrea Rudiger started with data from Stats Canada to see what the demographic data said before asking locals to take part in the survey themselves.
“It’s been really nice to talk to community members and validate some of the data we found through our background research and understand that the themes we were finding in our data align with what community members are feeling,” said Rudiger.
In total, 55 people completed the online survey, which Rudiger and Scholten plan to leave up for a few more weeks, 15 people filled out a hard copy, and about 40 locals stopped by the open houses to speak with the pair and ask questions.
Consistent themes across the county were a lack of larger single-family housing, a lack of both short- and long-term rentals, and too few options for seniors looking remain in the community while still downsizing their house.
“One of the things that surprised me that we didn’t really think about was that there’s a distinct lack of seniors housing. Because of that, people are staying in their homes for longer and then that means there’s a lack of homes for families, so it’s a compounding issue,” said Rudiger.
Once all the data gets compiled, it’ll be presented to municipal councils who will then decide on the next steps to take. Town councillor Sara Graling was present at the Athabasca town hall, and she said she hopes the data will help the town apply for grants in the future.
“First of all, it gives us data to support our beliefs. It allows us to be in a good position for any funding applications that might be open, and it supports community sustainability,” she said.
While some of the issues were true in all the communities, others were municipality specific. In the town of Athabasca, a common complaint was a complete lack of available housing, with rentals often being filled within days of being posted. On the other hand, a common issue raised in Boyle was the condition of the available houses.
“We had a few conversations about conditions; the houses are very old and there are no new builds,” said Rudiger.
