Housing Affordability in Calgary is Critical
The crisis we face as Calgarians is complex.
Calgary’s population growth in the last four years has surpassed expectations, increasing by 100,000 people, and the city’s population is expected to grow by another 110,000 in the next four years.
If swift action is not taken now, housing affordability will continue to erode at an alarming pace in our city as we continue to lose ground on the supply and condition of non-market affordable housing at a rapid rate. This is causing severe consequences to the social wellbeing of Calgarians, who are at risk of having to spend ever increasing shares of their household income on housing and who are at greater risk of homelessness.
According to a report from Calgary Economic Development, a lack of affordability also severely limits our city’s ability to attract and retain talent, grow and diversify our economy and continue to build a world class city.
Calgary Economic Development found that individual Calgarians earning less than $86,400 per year (which is 95% of Calgarian wage earners) only have affordable access to less than 40% of Calgary’s market housing stock.
Lack of affordable housing choices within our city also results in people seeking housing they can afford further away from the centre of our community, and outside city’s boundaries, increasing our environmental footprint. People are driving farther and farther to qualify for housing, limiting choices to stay in the city and live close to where they work and play, and often removing them from other family and support systems.
At Norfolk Housing Association, we witness daily what housing stability and affordability can do for an individual’s ability to integrate into community, to feel a sense of empowerment and belonging, feel respected and dignified. It is an incredible and overwhelming sight to see how each person, by simply having their needs met and respected, contributes to the resiliency of the community…how they turn to then care for others, to care for their surroundings, care for their environment, and care for their city.
We believe that housing is a basic human need and it’s obvious that it’s a priority for Calgarians as well, evidenced by the many headlines about housing affordability and what the City of Calgary sees in its own surveys of citizens; inaction is costly both financially and socially, and housing affordability is critical to Calgary’s economic wellbeing.
Calgary needs a diverse range of housing options in all communities so that all Calgarians can find homes that meet their needs. There is no one community and no one blanket solution that can bridge the gap – it is as ALL communities and as many innovative solutions as necessary to head off the very real and very looming crisis facing Calgarians.
All Calgarians have a role to play in tackling this complex issue, both individually and as a community. We can work together to approach this issue from a variety of angles, including (but certainly not limited to):
Embracing change and being part of future-proofing our communities for the eventual growth and diversity of housing needs.
Supporting increased choice in housing types so that we all have the opportunity to stay in our communities when our needs change.
Asking our provincial and federal governments to make housing affordability a top priority akin to education and health care for example.
Choosing to rent housing from mixed-market housing providers and getting engaged as a social impact renter.
Supporting non-profits who are addressing homelessness and providing supportive housing solutions so all Calgarians can live with dignity.
Getting engaged and learning more about how progressive housing policies and investment supports resilient communities.
And yes, municipalities also have a significant role to play in strengthening and supporting our system of housing providers, providers who are on the front lines of this crisis and working tirelessly to ensure people obtain affordable and adequate housing and supports, and that folks with housing can maintain it.
With the recently formed Housing and Affordability Task Force, the City did just that, working to bring together a wide variety of voices, including government, private citizens, and the housing sector, to come up with innovative and bold solutions. They recognized that this is no longer a conversation about the future – Calgarians need housing options, and they need them now.
The Recommendations of the Task Force were submitted to Council on June 6th, 2023 and Council has tasked the Housing Solutions team at the City of Calgary to incorporate the recommendations into the Corporate Affordable Housing Strategy that is slated to be presented to council in September of 2023.You can see the recommendations below (taken directly from https://engage.calgary.ca/HATaskForce ):
The first three recommendations will help Calgary to increase and diversify the supply of housing. Boosting development by 1,000 more market homes beyond what is normally built in a year, and at least 3,000 non-market affordable homes a year.
Recommendation 1: Make it easier to build housing across the city.
Recommendation 2: Make more land available to build more housing across the city.
Recommendation 3: Ensure that the supply of affordable housing meets the needs of Indigenous people living in Calgary and Equity-Deserving populations.
The next two recommendations will help Calgary to strengthen the housing sector to support partner collaboration and foster a greater impact than if they were to act alone.
Recommendation 4: Convene the housing sector to facilitate greater collaboration.
Recommendation 5: Increase the investment to support housing providers.
The last recommendation will help Calgary to improve living conditions for people in rental housing.
Recommendation 6: Ensure more individuals have a safe place to call home.
Now, with any solution on any huge, systemic problem – like that of affordable housing in Calgary and beyond, the easiest thing in the world would be to get stuck on one Recommendation as a reason not to support. But the reality is that something – and something big - has to happen to push change forward.
At NHA, we do believe that these critical recommendations are necessary as a framework to get us to a place where Calgary and the housing sector are not reactive to a crisis that, in many ways and for many folks, is already here.
The recommendations above provide a path to more available market and non-market housing, they will improve housing choice, diversity and affordability. And this will improve our collective social, economic and environmental resilience as well.
The time for bold action is now.
Please consider calling or sending a letter to your councilors, and let them know that housing affordability is important to you, that the recommendations of the Task Force on Housing Affordability are critical to improving housing affordability in Calgary.
Find your Councilor here. https://www.calgary.ca/council/findyourcouncillor.html
Our CEO, Maya Kambeitz, was asked to join the Task Force that worked for months to pull together these bold Recommendations. She was asked as a member of community, not as a representative of NHA, and this is some of what she had to say when she presented the Recommendations to Council in June 2023.
“I am not a native Calgarian. I moved here from Bosnia with my family in 1994 and so I am familiar with housing insecurity, instability, and how traumatic this can be. Housing insecurity causes a great deal of stress and anxiety for children and can negatively impact their ability to focus in school and build resilience. We cannot continue to subject citizens to this insecurity when we know what the solutions are.
We need more housing types and choices across the spectrum, we need to support more affordable housing development by providing land, we need to remove regulations that make it costly and time consuming to get affordable housing built, and we need to reduce operating costs for affordable housing providers so they can provide affordable rents. Also, we need a cultural shift because we cannot continue to rely on sprawl to solve our housing affordability challenges…
What I learned about Calgarians in those early days of living here, and what I see every day in the city and country that I am lucky enough to call home, is that Calgarians are problem solvers. Calgarians have grit and compassion, we see the big picture and we know that not ensuring our citizens have basic needs like housing is catastrophic for the wellbeing of our communities, as well as makes no economic sense, to put it simply.
As a citizen, as a mother, as an adopted Calgarian, I ask you to support these recommendations because…we cannot both financially and socially, afford inaction.”