Alberta announces $112M to build 250 modular homes for displaced Jasper residents
CBC
The Alberta government is investing $112 million for the construction of interim housing for Albertans who lost their homes when the community of Jasper was decimated by wildfire three months ago.
Seniors and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon made the funding announcement during a news conference Monday, signalling the construction of hundreds of modular housing units to help residents remain in their home community during the prolonged rebuild.
Nixon described the funding announcement as a significant step in rebuilding Jasper "so that it is stronger than ever."
He said a severe lack of housing in the mountain town remains a major barrier to recovery.
"It is crucial that Jasperites who come back to Jasper during this rebuild process have somewhere to live."
The bulk of the funding announced Monday will be used to construct 250 modular homes within the Jasper townsite.
The new homes will be available for essential service workers and support service workers, and other eligible Jasper residents who lost their homes.
Work on the pre-fabricated homes has already begun and the first residents should be able to move as early as January, Nixon said.
The homes will be offered at or near market rent, with the Alberta government as the landlord, Nixon said. Details on anticipated rental costs will be released soon, he said.
Watch | $112M announced for Jasper modular homes:
The homes will be permanent and fully serviced. Nixon said the homes will be of high quality and be developed into neighbourhoods with proper streetscapes and landscaping. It's still being determined how many of the interim housing units will be single occupancy and how many will be designed for families.
Once recovery in Jasper is complete, the province will sell the properties on the open market. Even after the community has recovered from the fire, the properties will still be needed to help address long-standing housing shortages in the mountain community, Nixon said.
He said he hopes the plan will alleviate some of Jasper's long-term housing challenges. Housing inventory has been long constrained by the community's relatively remote location and by constraints on construction within national parks, he said.
"The goal of these 250 units is to provide housing to people in Jasper that lost their homes so that we can take the time to rebuild the community appropriately," Nixon said.
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