| Last month I sat drunk at my computer and yelled at the one-legged boy I hired to type for me about the Mayor’s Report to Calgarians. People started to honk at me, teenage girls started using my voice as a ringtone, and there were banners with my name on the sides of cars and houses.
Now I don’t need people to paint pictures for me, although I do like it and find it most helpful when they do, but it made me decide that I like being positive. I thought to myself, ‘Self – be a joy spreader. Talk about the good things in Calgary, the people and places and programs that do good.’ Any paid columnist can get paid more than I don’t get paid to complain about everything – I want to be the bringer of felicity and delight.
I spoke about the city of Calgary and its laudable efforts to provide up to 600 homes for Calgary families and the working poor over the next three years. A place to start, but only a place to start. I want to use my newfound sense of importance to force the conversation about some next steps.
On one hand, we have a lot of money in this city, and on the other, we have many folks who need some better options when it comes to finding an affordable place to live. As I’ve alluded to before, the titanic clash between rich and poor, between smelly and non, between evil and good, goes nowhere. Let’s start seeing each other for who we are – we are all good people, and we want to do good when the barriers to helping are low enough to step over. Why don’t we bridge the gaps when we see them, and leave the complaining to others? Why don’t we search for, invent, brainstorm and create some innovative policy solutions that we can all label as progress?
Why don’t we all write about program models like the Norfolk Housing Association (www.norfolkhousing.ca)? This unique private not-for-profit affordable housing provider in our city facilitates quality, affordable and supportive housing for families and individuals with low incomes or special needs, using a supportive and compassionate community-based, mixed-model approach. The key to the mixed-model success is that while Norfolk owns and operates six buildings in our city with a combined 125 living units – 50 per cent are rented at the low end of market value, and the other 50 per cent are rented to households of low income at rates measured to 30 per cent of household income. The rent in these units is therefore unique to tenant income – a brilliant model where the market subsidizes the non-market. A subsidized tenant is able to pay more rent as their situation improves, is able to avoid the "ghetto effect" of traditional low income rental housing developments, and lives in an environment that integrates them in their community and encourages them to improve their situation.
The model at the Norfolk Housing Association works —they are seen as a best practice in providing affordable housing, so we need more.
According to the Calgary Homeless Foundation, more than 50 per cent of Calgary’s homeless have jobs, but they just can’t afford market rent together with a security deposit. People are doing what they can and working for a living. The folks at Norfolk and many others in our city remind us that we are letting them down.
Adam Legge, a director at Norfolk, put it this way. "We can make things better — it is just going to take some smart and thoughtful leadership that reflects the most effective ways to bring about a new affordable housing supply. It’s about many people who are working to set things straight, to provide for themselves and their families. We are just trying to create the right environment for things to happen and you will be amazed at what can be accomplished."
For those of us who need an argument that goes beyond "helping others" and the "preservation of all human dignity," the Calgary Chamber of Commerce succinctly outlines the business-related implications of homelessness and the lack of affordable housing: "If Alberta is going to be a key player in the knowledge-based economy, it will need to refocus its industry and infrastructure supports to include human capital. Access to education, training, health care, community supports and affordable housing affect productivity and competitiveness – and will be necessary components of future economic development strategies in this province."
An inspiring friend of mine tells me, "Challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day."
Either that or write a column about it, feel good about yourself and have what’s his name hobble you over another beer. |
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