Edmonton committee discusses affordable housing strategy
Posted October 11, 2022 7:28 pm.
Last Updated October 11, 2022 7:33 pm.
Edmonton will have a significant affordable housing shortage by 2026 with nearly 59 thousand households left without a low-cost place to call home, if the number of those rental homes doesn’t increase, according to a staff report.
“Housing should be seen as a basic essential need for Edmontonians,” says the mayor of Edmonton, Amarjeet Sohi.
As the city updates its affordable housing strategy, Mayor Sohi says he wants to reverse this trend by looking at the issue as they do other infrastructure.
“Affordable housing should be seen as an integral piece of infrastructure, the way we see transportation infrastructure, the infrastructure around police stations, fire halls because affordable housing is so integral to building a stronger economy for the well-being of communities and individuals,” he says.
Others at the Community and Public Services Committee echoed those calls. “We need to plan for housing infrastructure in the same way we plan for other infrastructure like transportation because planning ensures it happens, it doesn’t happen just by accident,” says Christel Kjenner, the Director of Affordable Housing and Homelessness for the City of Edmonton.
Despite building nearly 2,800 affordable housing units over the past several years, one in seven households in Edmonton are still in ‘core housing need’ meaning they are on the brink of homelessness.
“The population will continue to grow, and as it continues to grow there will be more demand for affordable housing in our city and we need to be sure we are meeting that demand,” says Sohi.
“There is a significant number of Edmontonians struggling to afford basic housing costs. There’s currently close to 50 thousand households in core housing need which means their income is not sufficient to cover the costs of average housing or average market rent, and we are projecting this need will grow by 2026, upwards of 60 thousand households,” says Kjenner.
The final draft of the housing strategy will go before council for approval next year.
