Two Quest University researchers have launched a Squamish survey to get a clearer picture of the housing crunch in the district.
Quest professor Kaija Belfry Munroe and research assistant Anna Marie Kate Obermeier developed an online survey of people’s housing situations that is open until Nov. 15.
The interest in the housing issue came out of anecdotal evidence of a lack of housing in the district, Belfry Munroe said.
“It is not even affordable housing from a very low-income situation, it is affordable housing for middle-income Squamishites,” she said. “People having trouble getting things they could possibly afford within a normal salary in this town.”
She said it appears there are shortages and that rents have gone up in a very short period of time.
“But we don’t actually have any data about that,” Belfry Munroe said. A conversation with Councillor Jason Blackman-Wulff, who chairs the district housing task force, inspired the focus of the research because he highlighted the lack of hard data needed to inform decision making around district housing, said Belfry Munroe.
The surveys are aimed at multiple housing stakeholders: homeowners, current renters, those seeking rental accommodations, builders and architects.
The survey responses are completely anonymous and take about five minutes to complete.
Belfry Munroe said she is cautious about what the survey results can actually accomplish. It all comes down to the numbers of people who take the surveys, she said.
“The sample size may be so small that there won’t necessarily be any ability to generalize for the general public, from the small sample size we have,” she said.
So far, the pair has about 140 completed surveys. Ideally they would like hundreds of people from each group to respond, Belfry Munroe said.
“The more people who respond, the more we will be able to do with the data,” she said.
Part of the problem is being able to reach all the people in Squamish.
“We don’t know where all owners are in Squamish. One of the problems is there aren’t registered suites to the same extent, so we can’t even get ahold of everyone who has registered a suite,” she said.
Belfry Munroe has experienced housing issues of her own. Her family was squeezed out of their rental home last year when their landlady moved back into the home. Belfry Munroe’s baby was one month old at the time.
Luckily, according to Belfry Munroe, although rents had increased, buying was still relatively affordable, so her family now owns a home.
Since then, housing prices have increased considerably, she said.
Belfry Munroe knows of others in her housing complex who are now living hand-to-mouth in order to make their housing payments.
“I feel for this community, because the more money we pay for our mortgages [and rents] the less money that gets into the community,” she said.
“We need to find a way where people can live happily and affordably, because then they have disposable income and they are putting their kids in programs and they are going out for dinner and they are getting massages and they are doing all the things that people don’t do when they just have no money.”
To access the Squamish Housing surveys, go to http://bit.ly/1QcDNub. There is a separate survey for those renting a room in a home: http://bit.ly/1MvfzZI.
