Sixty-five mobile homes originally built for families displaced by the Slave Lake fire are now moving to Fort McMurray.
The homes are intended to meet the need for three- or four-bedroom rental accommodation in Fort McMurray’s housing market. They are winterized and designed to be lived in for up to two years.
A Red Cross survey showed families are still struggling to find longer-term housing with more than two bedrooms.
“Finally they’ll have a place to be able to call home,” said Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, who serves as vice-chair of Alberta’s Wood Buffalo ministerial recovery task force.
“I’m glad that we’ve been able to meet the need of some of those families that the market just hasn’t been able to support up until now,” Larivee said. “We’re meeting the need that the market was unable to provide for.”
Rent for the homes will be set at Fort McMurray’s market rate, so the local economy won’t be distored, says Danielle Larivee, minister of municipal affairs. (CBC)
The mobile homes will be ready to occupy by the end of October. They’re not meant to be a solution for families in need of affordable housing, Larivee said.
The homes will rent for $2,500 per month for three bedrooms and $2,650 per month for four bedrooms, the market rate in Fort McMurray, according to Larivee.
“It’s a fair market rate for the community of Fort McMurray,” she said. “There’s no desire on the part of the government of Alberta to distort the market or create problems with the local economy in Fort McMurray, which is why we set the rates at what we did.”
Families with a need for additional bedrooms can apply at a demonstration unit that will be set up in Fort McMurray on Sept. 9.