Banff is a haven for young people who come to work and live and spread their wings, many for the first time. It’s a dream 18-year-old Charly Mcmullen was hoping to fulfill.
“I was hoping to stay in Banff for six months to a year,” said Mcmullen.
But her stay ended after just four days.
Mcmullen accepted a job as a room cleaner and planned to live in $13-a-day staff accommodation. But when she arrived, she said it wasn’t what she had expected.
“They told me they no longer had any staff accommodation available and they haven’t for the past week and they were housing people in hostels and hotels,” she said.
Banff is facing a labour shortage and a thinned-out private rental market is not helping the situation.
“Throughout the pandemic, as a lot of our population moved away from Banff, what used to be a fairly compressed living environment — maybe four to six sharing in a two-bedroom unit — that’s thinned itself out,” said Cathy Geisler with Banff Lodging Co.
“There’s not enough rentals in the private market we have this big influx of employees coming into town and it’s putting pressure on our staff housing demands.”
Geisler said her company is feeling that crunch. It’s providing staff accommodation for 450 employees but admits 12 new staff members are staying at a hostel this week and about 60 in hotels, temporarily.
Geisler said employees are paying a maximum of $13 a night, the same as if they were in staff accommodations. She said the temporary housing is not ideal and costing the company a lot of money. She said they are working hard to get everyone out of hotels by the end of the month.
“I can tell you that two years ago we had four out of 10 looking for housing support. Today we have six out of 10 or more. This is a new situation for us but we are confident it will be resolved as we move toward the end of June,” said Geilser.
The pandemic has caused a shift in the rental market and forced many to re-evaluate their personal comfort levels when it comes to living in shared accommodations.
But low vacancy rates are an ongoing problem in the resort town. Some people are paying $1,000 a month for a single bedroom in the private rental market.
Darren Reeder with the Banff Lake Louise Hospitality Association said many seasonal winter workers have not left town yet. That, combined that with an influx of new hires for summer and fewer spaces, gets you a temporary run on the rental market.
“It doesn’t remove the larger strategic challenge we have, which is: there is just not enough overall inventory and price competitiveness for people coming into the community,” Reeder said.
Mcmullen said she tried looking for a place in the private market but everything was out of her budget.
She decided she didn’t want to wait for staff accommodation and headed home to Ontario instead, saying goodbye to her dream summer in the mountains for now.