Miwa Hiroe and her youngest daughter Mirai with Hiroe’s display. The windows open to reveal quiz questions to test people on their local housing knowledge. /SUBMITTED

By Laura Keil

Rashmi Narayan had a special display to promote the latest Valemount Housing Survey at the Valemount craft fair last weekend. She enlisted the help of Miwa Hiroe to create an interactive display to test people on Valemount’s housing facts.

“It was well received and many people didn’t realize the numbers for Valemount based on the 2016 census were this challenging,” Narayan said. She had 52 people stop by and spoke to many about the current housing situation. She said they spoke about high rents, pipeline impacts, other housing developments and several people who want to own their own home or move to the community.

Narayan, who received the Village contract to do the Housing Needs Assessment for the Village of Valemount, said there will be focus groups, interviews and hopefully an Open House before the final report at the end of March 2022. The housing needs survey for residents is open until Dec. 10th and can be found by visiting the housing news story on the Village Website www.valemount.ca. The survey and study will provide a snapshot of housing needs and help the Village and local organizations to identify funding for future housing options, the Village says. Four prizes are available for those who share their phone number at the end of the survey.