They look like little more than rectangular, brown-coloured boxes with windows now.
But by the fall of 2010, the exteriors of the 80 modular housing structures that will serve as part of the Whistler Athletes' Village housing strategy during the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics, will look similar to the nearby permanent townhomes that will be an integral part of the post-Games Whistler "legacy" neighbourhood.
And post-games, the modular units will be in the B.C. communities of Sechelt, Chilliwack, Surrey, Enderby, Saanich and Chetwynd as part of a B.C. Housing plan to share the Games housing legacy province-wide.
Sechelt, for example, will receive four of the structures, which will comprise eight, 32-sq.metre "bachelor"-type units to serve as permanent, low-income housing on the site of the old RCMP detachment on Dolphin Street, Mayor Darren Inkster said during a media tour of the Whistler site last Thursday (Aug. 20).
"We've been working on this project in Sechelt for a number of years," said Inkster. "It's really important for our community because it will provide much-needed social housing."
During the Games, most athletes and officials about 2,850 of them during the Olympics, 1,000 during the Paralympics will be housed in the permanent buildings, but the modular units will house some 600 team officials as well.
After the Paralympics end next March, the modular structures will be transported to their new homes, where officials in most cases are already laying the groundwork, said Craig Crawford, vice-president of development services with B.C. Housing.
Each of the six communities has provided the land needed to make the project happen, while provincial authorities have earmarked almost $36 million to build and move the structures, lay the foundations on the sites and do the much-needed finishing work, Crawford said.
"We don't say they'll look exactly like that," he said, motioning toward the almost-completed Whistler townhomes standing nearby, "but it will be very similar to that."
"What needs to be done to get from this (modular) to that (permanent) has all been pre-planned."
All told, the project will create between 140 and 150 units of social housing post-Games, Crawford said.
In Sechelt's case, the final development will rise two storeys, with the four bottom-floor units wheelchair-accessible, Crawford said.
Aside from the value of the land, the cost to Sechelt taxpayers will be "minimal," Inkster said, adding that most of that is a result of the time municipal staff has and will expend on the project.
Dan Doyle, VANOC executive VP for construction, said the idea for the project occurred during a debriefing session after the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy. There, officials determined that they needed housing for about 650 more officials at Games time.
"We looked at something like a construction camp, but that leaves no legacy," Doyle said.
