Laura Pedersen

This affordable housing project in Inglewood will be completed early next year

Sandwiched between a park and a grease factory, the hulking plywood frame of the Inglewood Residence looks like just another construction site. But when it’s finished early next year, the affordable housing project will offer more than 100 people a way off the streets or out of the paycheque-to-paycheque trap of expensive rents.

More importantly, it’s one of the first steps in Calgary’s ambitious plan to end homelessness in 10 years. In the last two weeks, the city has acquired a 150-unit condo building to convert to affordable housing in the Springbank Hill neighbourhood, and received a pledge of much-needed cash from the province to pump into housing. However, some say it falls far short of what’s needed and, without more action from the province, the city’s plan can’t go forward.

The province will give the city $48 million this year for affordable housing, and non-profit groups will also be eligible to apply for a piece of a $142-million fund to build housing. “Everything we get helps,” says Tim Richter, chief executive officer of the Calgary Homeless Foundation. “We’ve identified over 1,000 units [of potential affordable housing]. What we need to do is get them funded and get them built.”

In January, the foundation unveiled a major plan to end homelessness in Calgary within a decade. The plan requires over $2 billion to build 11,250 new units of housing, of which $623 million would come from the government. The plan needs a further $1.2 billion to cover operating costs to keep the units up and running. For the plan to work, Richter says, the city has to start building 850 units of affordable housing this year and 1,000 more each year for the next several years. The housing would be in a variety of forms, including subsidized apartments, housing co-operatives, government-owned houses, rent subsidies and mental health units. “There’s so much we need right now, we’re looking at everything,” Richter says.

However, some don’t think the government’s current money commitment is enough to make it work. “It most likely will not provide all that many more units,” says Grant Neufeld, a longtime anti-poverty and affordable housing activist. He estimates that $1 million can buy four units of housing. “I don’t see a way out of (homelessness) in the next few years.”

In addition to providing money, Neufeld argues that the government also has to bring in rent controls, stop developers from converting rental housing into condos and raise the minimum wage above the poverty line. Last year, the provincial government declined to impose rent controls, which would have capped the amount landlords can raise rents. The current minimum wage is $8.40 an hour. Researchers estimate a living wage would be upwards of $12.

Neufeld and Richter agree the province also needs to pump more money into social assistance, including Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), a program that gives money to those whose disabilities prevent them from working.

The number of people on the city’s waiting list for affordable housing is also climbing. For the last two years, there were 2,200 households in demand. In the last two months, that number has jumped to 2,450 in the last two months. “We’re receiving a lot more applications from parts of Canada that might be in recession,” says Dale Stan, general manager of Calgary Housing Company, which administers the city’s current stock of 9,000 units of affordable housing. “As fast as [new houses] are brought on stream, we’re able to rent [them].”

Neufeld is also concerned about affordable housing being owned by the government. He prefers that housing should be controlled directly by the users, such as in a housing co-operative, to prevent the government selling it off. In the 1990s, for instance, the provincial government sold affordable housing in Calgary because the strong rental market made it less necessary. Just a few years later, it was caught flat-footed by the current housing crisis, which has seen roughly 4,000 people end up on the city’s streets.

City officials say it’s too soon to know exactly how the new cash will be spent and what kind of units it will buy. “We haven’t at this point got any indication how it will be allocated,” says Gail Sokolan, affordable housing co-ordinator with the city. She did, however, indicate that there will be a mix of different types of housing, pointing to a project last year that saw the city subsidize 1,000 units in various apartment buildings in co-operation with the Calgary Apartment Association.

For now, the 10-year plan is moving along, Richter says. Since January, the foundation has found housing for 40 families and 25 individuals. It also held an event to connect 650 homeless people with services in the city. “We’re making really good progress,” Richter says.