Australian Matt Miller had heard that finding housing in Whistler would be tough, but he had no idea he’d be living in his van for the winter.
Mr. Miller, 22, is one of a growing number of residents in the ski resort that are living in their vans, or campers, or sleeping on the couches of friends, in order to get by in the ski resort town that has been undergoing a sudden real estate boom this year.
For Whistler’s workers, there are more jobs than homes.
“I was told it would get better in September, but it seems to be getting worse,” says Mr. Miller, who arrived a month ago. He had bought the van when he was travelling in the United States. He’s insulated it, but if it gets really cold, he plans to rent parking in someone’s driveway for $200 or so a month, in exchange for running a power cord to their house. He knows other people who have similar plans.
“You see RVs parked all around Whistler. I have a bench seat in the back that flips into a bed. I have a sleeping bag. I have membership for the gym, so I go there every morning [for a shower] before I go to work. Everyone has different standards. A lot of people wouldn’t like to do it, but I’m pretty used to it.”
His boss, Noah Madsen, a general manager for the Lordco auto parts chain, says he’s never seen the housing situation this bad, even prior to the Olympics.
“I have a lot of people applying for jobs from out of town, and I tell them to look for housing first. I’ll tell them, ‘you won’t have a problem finding a job – it’s the housing that’s the problem.’”
Business might be booming, but keeping staff is the tough part. Mr. Madsen said his sales were up 18 per cent this year. But he also has the highest employee turnover out of more than 100 stores in the province. And other businesses are affected.
“In the summer time, I saw restaurants having to close the patios because they couldn’t get enough staff. It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it.”
Richard Den Duyf has lived in Whistler for 33 years, and he operates a busy excavation business. He’s lived in his comfortable 450-square-foot trailer for two years, but he plans to move back into a house one day. He sympathizes with the workers who are trying to get by.
“It’s just very expensive, so it makes it tough for people to find rent when they are working for minimum wage. I find a lot of guys who work for me seasonally, come winter time, they get into the service industry and they have to have a couple of jobs to make ends meet.”
Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden has recently formed a task force on the issue, set to meet on Nov. 7. The housing crisis is partly the result of a booming economy, she says. As a result, there are a lot of jobs, and more people moving there for work. Residents of the Lower Mainland are also cashing out and moving into their secondary Whistler properties, for year-round use. That means they’re taking rental housing off the market. Compounding the problem is the arrival of short-term rental services, such as Airbnb. And with more people looking to buy, property sales have shot back up this year, pushing up prices.
“There have been a number of factors that have created the perfect storm,” says Ms. Wilhelm-Morden. “We don’t want to see people commuting. We don’t want to see people living in their cars – that’s just heartbreaking. And I’m quite concerned that this winter is going to be a tough one.”
Whistler formed the Whistler Housing Authority in 1997, with the purpose of ensuring that it set aside housing that was for resident use only. Ms. Wilhelm-Morden was on council at the time, and she says the idea was borne out of a trip to an Aspen, Colo., ski resort. She saw hardly any children because nobody lived there. Workers would commute from afar, causing daily congestion.
They opted to create a viable, livable community in Whistler instead, that wouldn’t require commuting. They even put a cap on the total amount of density allowed, which now sits at around 61,750 bed units.
As a result, residents have the option to buy housing at a rate far lower than market, but the resale price is capped to maintain affordability. About 6,200 people have used the program, and WHA has housed more than 50 per cent of the work force. In total, 75 per cent of workers have found housing within Whistler, which was the goal.
“You compare that to some place like Vail, Colorado, where their goal is to house 40 per cent of their employees, but is only housing 20 per cent. So we are ahead of the curve,” says Ms. Wilhelm-Morden.
Still, the wait for housing is long, with 577 applicants on the rental wait list. And there is that matter of people living in their vans.
“I can’t believe we just keep building more employee housing, and it keeps getting eaten up. Everyone wants to live up here,” says Mr. Den Duyf.
Employers often purchase housing for employees to rent, but it’s not secure housing because it’s dependent on the job. Also, many workers live in crowded rooms, sleeping on bunk beds.
The WHA is responding to the crisis with new purpose built rental that will offer 100 beds for workers, with another 100 to follow in a year and a half.
But, says the mayor, her gut feeling is it won’t be enough. Funding from other levels of government is needed.
“It can’t be laid solely at the feet of the Municipality of Whistler, or the Whistler Housing Authority,” says Ms. Wilhelm-Morden. “It has to be attacked by the provincial and federal government as well.”
Considering the huge tax revenues Whistler is generating she feels that the province and federal government could contribute to their housing costs.
“This little town of 10,000 is producing $1.53-billion in GDP annually,” she says, citing new data. “We produce $140-million a year in tax revenues, and that’s up from $112-million in 2012.”
The municipality has several studies going on to look at how many houses sit vacant, especially since there are several owners of more than one home. They’re also studying how many are being torn down and rebuilt, who’s living in them full time, and if they’re losing secondary suites to redevelopment.
Developer, investor and realtor David Nagel says supply dropped in the spring, and prices had escalated. The summer market cooled as usual, and now prices are picking up again. There’s been a 42-per-cent increase in the price of a duplex and a 13.9-per-cent increase in the price of a condo in the last year, according to the Whistler Listing Service.
Although American buyers have returned due to the low Canadian dollar, they represent less than 10 per cent of the market. It’s the Lower Mainland buyer that is driving the market, representing about 45 per cent. Mr. Nagel is seeing working-age buyers who can’t afford the Lower Mainland turn to Whistler, either as their full-time base, or a part-time getaway. The idea is to get into the market.
“I just sold a property to two physicians from Toronto moving west because they want to be in mountains,” says Mr. Nagel. “Their main home will be in Whistler and they’ll have a small rental in city, and both of them will commute on the odd occasion for work. So that is something that is happening. I would say it’s driving the sea-to-sky corridor.”
Editor's Note: The original print and online versions of this story got Mr. Madsen's title and the number of Lordco stores in British Columbia wrong. In addition, the date on which the Whistler Housing Authority was formed was incorrect as was the percentage of Whistler workers housed in WHA buildings. This online version has been corrected.