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It’s time to recognize that the housing crisis is not just an economic issue, it’s a human one.
This is about people struggling to make ends meet, families being forced to choose between paying rent or their mortgage and putting food on the table. Calgarians being priced out of the neighbourhoods they call home.
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We can’t turn a blind eye to this crisis any longer. Because the people who are affected by this crisis are not strangers — they are our friends, family, neighbours, and even our own children.
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We need to take bold and decisive action now to ensure that our city, our neighbours and our loved ones have access to homes that are safe and affordable. If you are lucky enough to have generational wealth, perhaps you are already turning the page on this, but I wouldn’t look away. Housing affordability is key to economic prosperity.
There is no secret agenda. There is simply not enough housing in Calgary to meet the needs of our growing population.
As outlined in a recent City of Calgary study, our city is on the brink of accommodating an influx of nearly 110,000 residents from 2023 to 2028. But here’s the problem: we’re growing faster than housing can be built, and most people in Calgary don’t make enough money to buy one and not enough rental is available. Right now, 75 per cent of working Calgarians can afford less than 40 per cent of the city’s available housing. This needs to change.
It’s time to put aside our differences, our preconceptions and our biases. On Sept. 14, there are 33 ways we can solve this together. The recommendations of the Housing and Affordability Task Force; a public task force made up of some of our city’s finest leaders and advocates from the private sector, from our schools and from our social servicing agencies, released a plan to address housing affordability challenges in Calgary. The actions aim to increase and diversify the supply of housing, strengthen the housing sector through partnerships, and improve living conditions for Calgarians in rental housing.
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Even if you spend very little time worrying about how you will pay your rent or mortgage, housing affordability is still an issue that affects you because it affects the overall well-being and economic stability of the community.
The pandemic and inflationary pressure we have all experienced has demonstrated that no one is immune to a life-altering event that can place us in a precarious situation. You have either been there or you know someone who has; an unexpected illness or diagnosis, a trauma, a cut in work hours and, just like that, you must make the very difficult and gut-wrenching decision between your home or food.
Affordable housing is a basic human need that should be accessible to everyone regardless of income. Providing affordable housing is not a charity or a handout, but rather an essential component of a healthy and equitable society. It is time to shift our mindset from apologizing for providing affordable housing to recognizing it as a sign that we are prospering.
The issues are complex, but we know where we need to start in addressing these challenges. Calgarians need to apply that famous grit when facing the challenge of housing affordability, and that means approaching our neighbours and fellow citizens with dignity, respect and compassion, and showing them we all belong in a community. We owe it to our children and future generations to create a city where everyone has a place to call home.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and work together to make it happen. It won’t be easy, but it’s a fight worth fighting.
And for this, we are not sorry.
Teresa Goldstein and Maya Kambeitz were members of the Housing Affordability Task Force.
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