It's starting to sound like something of a broken record, but housing remained a major issue in Estevan in 2013.
As has been the case since the economy began to boom five years ago, Estevan continued to suffer from a lack of rental accommodations and, more importantly to some, a lack of affordable accommodations.
As The Mercury reported in the spring, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation announced that the Energy City's vacancy rate had dropped to 0.0 per cent. Worse yet, Estevan was also leading in the province in average rental prices and by a pretty hefty margin.
The issue led to calls for the provincial government to institute some form of rent control. Others called for the government to do more to help communities, such as Estevan, deal with the problems that come with such rapid growth.
On a local level, the City of Estevan has continued to work with the provincial government to create more affordable housing. To their own admission, that work has yet to find much traction and they have begun to look in other directions. One concept that shows promise is a housing project that would be used to house students at the Saskatchewan Energy Training Institute as well as low-income earners in the city.
A number of groups including the City, Southeast Regional College and Estevan Chamber of Commerce have come together to support the project and the results of an economic impact study will be announced in January.
Although the City's work with the provincial government has not been overly productive thus far, Estevan has continued to attract the interest of developers.
The Alberta-based Trimount Developments has been very active in the Dominion Heights subdivision with a number of single-family lots, duplexes and a condominium that is currently under construction.
While that project is ongoing in north Estevan, WestD Construction is continuing work at the city's southern edge on a modular home park named The Ridge. The park has proven so popular that the Regina-based company has already announced plans for a second phase.
Those two projects have gotten much of the spotlight but there is also a new apartment building on Third Street and more rental properties being built on Kensington Avenue underway.
The emergence of these projects is obviously positive news but the bigger question is how they will impact the rental situation, as many have opined that issue is preventing Estevan from enjoying an even stronger population increase.
Perhaps the fall report from the CMHC holds a partial answer. According to the report, Estevan's vacancy rate was 1.8 per cent. That isn't a huge increase over the spring but an increase nonetheless. The more telling report will likely come when the numbers for the spring are released and the bigger picture becomes clearer. Stay tuned.
