Although members of Okotoks town council made plenty of noise while singing carols during Light Up, they more quietly started the wheels last week that will warm homes for holiday seasons for years to come. Council’s unanimous decision on Nov. 13 to support recommendations of the Okotoks Affordable Housing Task Force may mean those warm homes in the future are not consuming large portions of Okotokians’ budgets. Hopefully, the task force’s recommendation won’t end up like a Dostoevsky novel, it looks impressive on the shelf, but does anybody read or act upon it? Council has shown it will act and listen — earlier this year it didn’t drop the tiny homes idea after complaints from residents at Kinsmen Park, but instead moved it to the future D’Arcy Ranch area. The recommendations are both long and short term and some could be done immediately to help those Okotokians who are spending a considerable amount of their funds just to pay for a roof over their heads. The task force revealed 45 per cent of renters in town are paying more than the recommended 30 per cent of their income on rent, and a whopping 19 per cent are spending more than 50 per cent of their income on housing. That leaves little money for those renters to spend in the Okotoks economy. Tiny houses can’t be built in a day, but the process of relaxation of parking for secondary suites, along with the restrictions on homeowners to develop opportunities for rental space, could start immediately. Of course, public input and due process cannot be compromised. The passing of the recommendations could be a holiday gift for some Okotoks residents. And it’s a gift that may keep giving for years.
