Affordable housing crisis puts 6,000 units at risk

Aging buildings, skyrocketing maintenance costs and dwindling federal and provincial funds threaten the closure of nearly two-thirds of Calgary’s affordable housing units, says Coun. Brian Pincott.

Calgary Housing Company, a subsidiary of the city, maintains about 9,500 units across the city in roughly 180 facilities and helps house 25,000 people, almost 10,000 of whom are under 17 years old.

But the CHC 2014 annual report says the other levels of government are reducing funds to develop new buildings or properly maintain the existing stock.

More than half the city’s affordable units managed by the CHC were built before 1981, and 10 per cent prior to 1971.

“We don’t have enough ongoing maintenance funding right now, that’s been either held flat or trimmed back from the provincial government over the years,” said Pincott, who chairs the CHC board of directors.

The number of applicants waiting to get into an affordable property stood at 3,395, up slightly from the 3,346 in 2013.

About 39 per cent of the waitlist are single parent families, and about one-third of all applicants have a working income.

“The big thing that is on the horizon and is going to get worse is the expiry of the federal operating agreements,” said Pincott.

Those agreements will start to expire in 2021 and means the mortgages on those properties will be fully paid off. It will also end restrictions on income and rental limits.

But most of those properties have been “run into the ground” because of a lack of operating dollars and by the time the federal operating agreements end there will be “absolutely no life left” in the assets, said Pincott.

“In a way we’ve got this crisis around expiring operating agreements, which means we’re going to be closing doors,” Pincott said, adding about 6,000 units in Calgary are in jeopardy.

Further, its spring budget, the former PC government slashed a program that saw the province pay property taxes on behalf of seniors and social housing facilities, costing the city about $5 million.

However, that budget failed to pass after the Tories were defeated by the NDP in the May election, though it’s unclear whether the New Democrats will revive the program when it unveils its budget this fall.

“Basically, a decision hasn’t been made yet,” said Jessica Lucenko, a spokeswoman for Alberta’s Seniors department.

The NDP campaign platform made passing reference to affordable housing, saying it would expand the powers to municipalities allowing them to mandate more units.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci said Seniors Minister Sarah Hoffman is responsible for the affordable housing portfolio, but he is sympathetic to the cause.