Whistler, BC
Background/description of housing need and challenges
Whistler is a world-renowned resort community with a permanent population of just under 10,000 and
an average daily population of approximately 25,000 due to visitors. It has 3,910 occupied private
dwellings, 55% owned and 45% rental. There are approximately 970 secondary suites, close to 25% of
the occupied dwellings.
Whistler’s seasonal employee population grows by approximately 5700 in the winter season. The
affordable housing challenges for employees date back to the 1980s. As real estate prices climbed
steadily through the 1990s the housing market became unaffordable for all housing types, and home
ownership became unattainable for most of the residents who had not already purchased. Furthermore,
rental housing was limited and expensive.
The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) and Whistler businesses, including the resort’s main
employer, Whistler Blackcomb, recognized that the lack of affordable housing for employees was a
significant challenge for the resort economy, which relied on seasonal employees.
Approach
Understanding that the affordable housing issue
needed to be addressed proactively in order to
ensure the economic viability of the resort, the
RMOW created the Whistler Housing Authority
(WHA) in 1997 to oversee the development of
affordable housing in Whistler that specifically
served employee needs. The WHA created an
Employee Housing Fund through the Employee
Housing Service Charge Bylaw, which required
developers to provide either employee
restricted housing or cash-in-lieu. The WHA took
the $6 million in the housing fund, borrowed
another $13 million, and built 160 units of
resident restricted rental housing that it still owns today. Today, the WHA owns and manages
approximately 1900 units of affordable rental and ownership housing. Contributions to the housing fund
continue to be required from all new developments, and the WHA manages the funds and oversees the
building of housing units.
To keep the housing units perpetually affordable, resale price restrictions were placed on all resident
restricted ownership units from 1996 onwards. The maximum resale price of a unit is tied to inflation
based on the Core Consumer Price Index (CCPI) for Canada. On average, affordable housing units in
Whistler sell at approximately 50% of market value.
Solutions
The WHA builds, manages and administers rental and ownership affordable housing. Resale and price
restrictions, placed on the title of the entire parcel at rezoning and then transferred to the title of each
unit at the time of subdivision and then every subsequent resale, are administered by the WHA. The
restrictions take the form of two covenants: a Housing Agreement to stipulate occupancy and use and
the terms and conditions of resale and rent, and a Right of First Refusal/Option to Purchase which
provides the Municipality with the first option to purchase or refuse ownership of the restricted unit
with every sale, thereby ensuring all the housing restrictions are properly adhered to. These covenants
limit occupancy and use to employees or retirees of Whistler. More recent covenants also require
owners to occupy their units as their primary residence for at least six months of each year, and limit
resale price. For WHA owned rental units, tenants are required to sign a lease and to occupy their units
as their primary residence for a minimum of one year.
The process for resale relies on a waitlist and open house system. The waitlist (first come, first served,
once you qualify) is maintained by the WHA and divided into categories by project and unit type. When
a unit comes up for resale, the WHA invites the applicants on the waitlist to an open house. The vendor
accepts the purchase agreement from the waitlist applicant who is first in order on the list and wishes to
purchase the price and occupancy restricted unit. The deal usually completes in about four weeks and
the entire process typically takes less than six weeks. The WHA pays for a licensed realtor to facilitate
each transaction, thereby removing the need for the vendor to pay any real estate commission.
The WHA owns 230 restricted housing units, including Beaver Flats, Lorimer Court, 2120 Nordic, Nester’s
Pond, and Chiyakmesh (Cheakamus Crossing/Athletes’ Village), and manages the rest of the restricted
affordable housing units. The WHA is in the process of developing a new purpose built resident
restricted rental apartment building with 100 new beds in Cheakamus Crossing that will be available to
the local workforce in 2017.
Challenges
The community of Whistler was not immune to opposition to affordable housing projects.
During the early years of employee housing development in Whistler there was neighbo urhood
opposition voiced at Public Hearings to the proposed new housing projects. But Whistler’s local
governing leaders remained resolute for the need to provide affordable housing options for the
local workforce and continued to forge ahead with the housing developments despite
neighbourhood opposition. Today, there is little or no opposition to new employee housing
developments in Whistler, and the demand remains strong for the creation of new affordable
housing developments throughout the community.
Governance
The WHA is a wholly owned subsidiary of the RMOW, which owns all of the shares in Whistler
Housing Authority Ltd. It is governed by a board of directors, four (majority) of whom are RMOW
Council members and senior staff, who therefore maintain control of the company. The WHA is the
lead organization responsible for all restricted housing development in Whistler that uses the
Housing Fund and/or other public resources.