Families can either choose to live in substandard housing on the base or break the bank in expensive private market housing in Edmonton.

With 200 families on the waiting list at Edmonton Garrison even with it's shoddy housing most have no choice be to look at the private market. Only a fraction of the 4,500 soldiers stationed there have housing.

Instead they have to make due with cramped quarters off base that have inflated rents. Such is the case of Carrie Levesque's family living in Legal 30 minutes north of Edmonton. Her husband is away fighting for our country while she and their two daughters due with a tiny two bedroom bungalow. From the small house Carrie takes care of four other children to make ends meet.

Carrie and her girls know that they need a bigger place but without the extra money for higher rent they are stuck behind a rock and a hard place. Military housing though is not an option for this young family.

"The PMQs are horrible," said Levesque, who lived in one for the first two years of her husband's posting, which started in 2002.


"They're old, the plumbing sucks, the sewer comes up, the windows are old."


Housing prices in Edmonton rose 25% in 2006. The average cost of a home now is $300,000. Quite a hefty price tag for a military family that could be moved without much warning. Rental costs are even more hard to manage, a typical two-bedroom apartment will be renting for $1,115 a month in 2008.

One family was so worried about the housing that they asked for a delay when they were to be deployed to Edmonton. They were switched to a Winnipeg post instead.

The military is looking into ways to help their soldiers. One small band-aid is using 69 units at the former site of CFB Griesbach that is being changed into a civilian residential neighbourhood. That's just a drop in the overfull bucket though.

There is another solution for families. Ask not to be deployed to Edmonton until the housing situation improves. That one may just get a little more action than anything else.