Tag Archives: housing crisis
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Nov. 18, 2018
Norway’s justice minister says the “government is working on a solution” for private homeowners in avalanche-prone areas, 72 applicants seek 39.1 million kroner from the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund and seven Russians help Store Norske workers clean up debris at the aging Mine 2B.
CATASTROPHIC COSTS: 250 homes in Longyearbyen to be demolished, 220M kr. for new housing and safeguards due to climate change
Forget the “alarmist” predictions about climate change impacts. During a year of actual catastrophes globally, here is Longyearbyen’s: 1) There are currently about 1,100 households in Longyearbyen. 2) about 250 residences are scheduled for demolition due to avalanche exposure, softening permafrost and other climate change factors.
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of June 12, 2018
New folk high school may mean 150 more Longyearbyen residents
Students enrolling at a new folk high school scheduled to open in Longyearbyen in the fall of 2019 will be able to register as permanent residents, which likely means the town can reverse more than a decade of decline in the percentage of Norwegian residents compared to foreigners.
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of April 24, 2018
Year-long trapping stays at Austfjordnes put on hold
The historical trappers’ way of life is coming to an end in Svalbard – at least temporarily at a cabin where caretakers have been selected for year-long stays by The Governor of Svalbard for the past few years.
‘Gotten scary’: Profits from tourism’s huge rise comes w/ huge pains in housing shortages, work conditions and disruptions
Complaints of disruptive behavior by tour companies and individual tourists at all hours and during all months. Workers being forced to leave because the proliferation of AirBnb rentals means they can’t find housing. Guides considering unionizing due to what they call abusive take-it-or-leave it contracts.
The rapid rise of mass tourism is a problem being felt across Europe and beyond, with the deluge of visitors appreciative of an area’s beauty stirring up a rapid and ugly rise of hostile feelings among people living there. But as with many things, the situation in Longyearbyen is occurring in unique and extreme ways due to a staggeringly rapid change that has seen several hundred coal mining jobs replaced by tourism workers during the past few years.
‘A completely unsustainable situation’: New avalanche risk report says far more homes than thought are vulnerable
Far more homes in the center of Longyearbyen are vulnerable to avalanches than previously thought. Spending 100 million to protect 37 residences and other parts of the city center with various snow barriers is being recommended. But there appears to be no practical way to protect about 140 more residences – meaning even more costly teardown and rebuilding efforts for a town already in a large-scale housing crisis.
Build the walls! (And we’ll pay for it): 44M more for new homes, avalanche barriers in government’s revised proposed budget
Lawmakers are proposing spending an additional 48 million kroner in next year’s national budget for housing and avalanche protection to help Longyearbyen cope with its sudden housing crisis after an avalanche in February – the second in 14 months that destroyed structures – shook up the faith of local residents and leaders in the safety of main homes near mountainsides.
