By Andrew de Souza

Ideas for city housing crisis

Nov 25, 2010 | 5:26 AM

Prince Albert is in a housing crisis and ideas need to be put forward says city councillor and chair of the city’s housing advisory committee, Ted Zurakowski.

“There’s no use waiting for the bomb to go off because it has,” he said.

“We have an attainable housing problem and (residents) need to know that the city is listening and we’re trying to action to deal with.”

To mark National Housing Day, Zurakowski and the housing advisory committee invited architect Steven Cohlmeyer who designed special small-scale, one-person housing units in Winnipeg.
Cohlmeyer called the concept “pocket homes.”

They’re designed to fill the market gap between renting or owning a large apartment or staying in a boarding house.

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“People who live in rooming houses have a really tough go at it all,” said Cohlmeyer.

“We wanted to develop a project that could to make life easier for people in that market.”
Cohlmeyer’s pocket homes are eight 250-square-feet, self-contained bachelor suites in a single building. Each has its own front door, kitchen, full bathroom and at least two windows.

He said the idea was to facilitate a person’s independence while allowing them to live within their means.

“They have a little more control, they have a better ability to rise up their own economic ladder, their own social ladder,” said Cohlmeyer. “There are many spin-offs that come in the long run.”

Currently, four pocket suite buildings have been built around Manitoba. According to Colhmeyer, rent is about $350 per month with utilities including. Residents can have a maximum income of $20,000 are allowed to rent the apartment if they meet certain suitability criteria.

Cohlmeyer said when the building was first being proposed, residents were against the project, but they eventually came around because of the quality of the design and the respectability of the occupants.

As an architect, Cohlmeyer said designing the building was a great exercise in designing a comfortable home with small floor-space. But he said there was something more important to understand about the project.

“The bigger lesson is that there are lots of solutions to be found if we look at the carefully current situation and problem and possibilities are,” he said.

Zurakowski agreed that as many ideas as possible need to be explored.

“Prince Albert has its issues with not only affordable housing but also social housing and homelessness,” said Zurakowski. “So “It’s really important that we do look at best practices and see what’s going on.

Currently, there are no active plans to adopt the housing style to Prince Albert.

adesouza@panow.com