EDMONTON — With upwards of 38,000 households in need of affordable housing in Edmonton, the city is creating a new affordable housing strategy. And it’s looking for feedback.
After a series of public engagement events earlier this year, city staff developed a draft version of its new affordable housing strategy, which will guide the city for the next 10 years.
“We’ve got a lot of catch up to do. We’re kind of behind the eight ball in terms of provision,” said Jay Freeman, executive director of Housing and Homelessness at the City of Edmonton.
“You have an affordability problem if you are earning less than the median income and you’re spending 30 per cent or more of your gross household income on rent and utilities.”
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Between 2006 and 2011 the city built over 3,000 affordable housing units in Edmonton, but with upwards of 30,000 new people coming to the city each year, Freeman says they’re struggling to keep up with the demand. And even though affordable housing is subsidized, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Edmonton is $1,225 a month. A one-bedroom apartment runs about $1,000 per month.
“Not everybody is coming here with sufficient money in their jeans to break into the tight housing market and we’ve got fairly low vacancy rates,” said Freeman.
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“In my opinion… there is a national housing crisis in Canada and also in Edmonton,” said Jeremiah Basuric, community engagement coordinator at The Mustard Seed, a not-for-profit organization that provides support to those living in poverty.
In Edmonton, there are 100,000 people living in poverty. About 40,000 of those are kids, and 3,000 are homeless. Freeman says putting a homeless person into affordable housing is 70 per cent cheaper than supporting them on the street. Those at The Mustard Seed say it also helps clean up their lifestyle, with an 80 per cent success rate.
“Putting them into a stable home first and then supporting them from that is way more successful than the other way around,” said Basuric. “Giving them four walls, a bathroom, a place to sleep seems to be a very successful step.”
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Freeman says the city can’t do it alone, though, it needs help from all levels of government to house the thousands in need, and it’s going to take time.
“Somebody needs to take the lead and we’re suggesting the municipality take the lead and we be the quarterback. But that doesn’t mean that we pay the full freight,” said Freeman. “Constitutionally, affordable housing is a provincial responsibility so we have to see the other orders of government at the table. We can’t do this ourselves.
“We didn’t get into this problem overnight so we’re not going to suggest we build 38,000 units in 2016, it’s just physically not possible, let alone the cost of that. So it’s going to take us a while for us to tackle that.”
The city has outlined four goals in its draft affordable housing strategy, which is part of its 10-year plan to end homelessness. To view the plan and take the city’s survey, visit the City of Edmonton’s website.
With files from Jessica Kent, Global News.
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