Social housing sits on shaky ground
Thousands could end up homeless as federal grants run out on units
Social housing agencies are staring down a decade of massive upheaval as federal grants run out on nearly 11,700 units.
Those involved worry it could mean thousands of families living in heavily subsidized townhouses could become homeless. The problem is detailed for the first time in a report being presented Thursday to Mayor Don Iveson.
Demand for subsidized housing is high and existing units are aging. Capital Region Housing has a waiting list of 2,100 families. It has a deferred maintenance bill of $100 million.
“We’ve got to get moving. We need a plan for this,” said Greg Dewling, executive director of the Capital Region Housing Corp., which manages 4,500 of the most heavily subsidized units.
At Capital Region Housing, families pay rent set at 30 per cent of their income, an average of $400 a month, Dewling said.
They have more than 3,000 single-parent homes, and 10,200 children age 17 and younger in homes.
Those families won’t find another place they can afford, he said, and being evicted often means some lose their family, too.
“A home is the only thing that’s keeping them together,” Dewling said.
The 11,700 units include ones mixed into co-op housing complexes, seniors’ housing, single-family homes reserved for low-income aboriginal families, and rent supplements to keep struggling families in their own homes.
“There’s a lot of people who need this or they’ll be living on the street,” said Ma Fletcher, a children’s performer who found himself relying on a housing subsidy when his Crohn’s disease flared up.
Fletcher has been on TV in 26 countries. He and his performing golden retrievers have taught 200,000 elementary school kids across Alberta about tolerance, kindness and respect for animals.
He believes he would be suffering on the street if it weren’t for the subsidy.
“You have ulcers in your intestines, large sections of it. I couldn’t work. I was in extreme pain, blinding pain,” he said. “I had no money coming in. I was broke.”
Now he’s teaching guitar and piano lessons out of his home. He stepped up to be a public face for the issue because many people who need subsidies give back to the community, he said.
“I give free shows to the Stollery for kids with cancer. That’s just how I live my life. This is the good life for me, doing the best I can with what I have and with my illness.”
Fletcher lives in the Sundance Housing Co-operative, one of several wrestling with the loss of federal subsidies. Many co-ops have market rate and subsidized units. Now the members are having to vote on whether they will step up and replace the subsidy with their own money or if all members will pay the same rate.
The decisions that resulted in the problem were taken in 1993, said Jay Freeman, executive director of the city’s housing and homelessness branch.
The federal government decided not to renew Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. agreements, 30- to 40-year operating agreements running roughly the length of the building’s mortgage.
Here, Ottawa had been funding 50 per cent of the cost, with Alberta paying 40 per cent and Edmonton picking up 10 per cent.
The province has not yet said whether it will leave its $22-million annual contribution on the table.
“Nationally, we haven’t built a stick of this housing since 1993. ... Generally we have old stock that is in fair or poor condition and we have no money to replace it,” said Freeman, who wrote the report with the mayor’s social housing regeneration advisory group.
Cities in Eastern Canada saw many of their agreements expire earlier. In a few cases, they’ve redeveloped the site at a higher density, using profit from homes offered at market rate to subsidize others.
But that only works where land values are high enough, Freeman said.
He doesn’t know if that will work anywhere in Edmonton. He hopes federal and provincial dollars will flow if Edmonton finds a workable alternative.