Calgary needs Supply, Stability, and Subsidy

We need your help to show Council that Calgarians are serious about addressing the housing crisis

Howdy Neighbour!

On September 14, council will vote on Calgary’s Housing Strategy. This housing strategy includes 33 recommendations developed by experts in the housing field, and passing all of these recommendations is a key first step to avoiding following the unaffordable paths of Vancouver and Toronto.

We need your help. The recommendations are facing attacks from anti-housing folks who want to maintain the status quo, and we need to show council that the majority of Calgarians want a variety of stable, affordable housing. In fact, these recommendations were initially voted down by council, and only widespread backlash and criticism from all sides of the political aisle led to the vote being effectively deferred to September 14.

Let’s make sure they hear us loud and clear this time:

• Share this newsletter with someone you know. We will be providing information about how you can get involved, what the recommendations mean, why they are so important.
  
  

• Join our Discord server, get involved in the conversation, and help us organize!
  

• Write your city councillor and tell them about how important this vote is to you. Wondering what or how to write? Drop into Good Neighbour community market (149 5 Ave SW) on August 25 from 6-8pm to get writing tips and help. We’re also happy to help you craft your story in the Discord!
  

• Speak up on September 14, online or in-person. We can help you to prepare your speaking notes and craft your 5-minute message. Just reach out in the Discord or email us at info@moreneighbourscalgary.ca.

Over the coming weeks we are going to bring you stories, discussion, and analysis surrounding the 33 recommendations in front of council.

Today we cover three core areas found throughout all 33 of the recommendations: Supply of more housing, stability for renters and homeowners, and subsidy for affordable, below-market housing.

Supply, Stability, and Subsidy

In The Affordable City, Shane Phillips argues that “Policies that support abundant housing, strong tenant protections, and increased funding are often driven by different constituencies, whether they’re pro-housing advocates, tenant advocates, affordable housing developers, or one of dozens of other interest groups and coalitions. These constituencies must improve their collaboration and begin working to simultaneously pursue the Three S’s: Supply, Stability, and Subsidy. … Any approach that excludes Supply, Stability, and Subsidy will leave many people out in the cold, and this is neither acceptable nor necessary.”

In Canada, cities largely control supply, provinces regulate housing stability (tenant protections), and the federal government funds subsidized housing. All levels of government need to work for everyone to have a place to live.

Supply supports growth

Places with growing populations need more houses. The City estimates that Calgary’s population is growing by 62 people per day. In 2021, Calgary’s average household had 2.6 people. Simple division (62 / 2.6 = 24) suggests that we need to complete 24 homes every day just to keep pace with new growth. Smaller households, people living in their homes longer (i.e. homes housing fewer families over a set period of time than they did in the past), and suppressed household formation all support building even more homes than the back-of-the-envelope math suggests. Perhaps we need 30-35 homes/day.

Many people will need to be part of building that many homes: individuals working incrementally to build small-scale homes in their neighbourhoods (like basement suites, backyard suites, duplexes, fourplexes), larger infill projects, and thoughtful transit-oriented communities.

Stability provides security and cohesion

Especially in places without enough homes, ownership may be the only stable form of housing. Yet, renters should also have stable housing. This becomes more important as local home prices rise faster than local incomes and the number of renters grows faster than homeowners.

Tenant protections that don’t meaningfully reduce housing production should be encouraged. Current tenant protections likely need better enforcement. Phillips suggests anti-gouging laws, rent stabilization, displacement compensation and right of return, buying naturally occurring affordable housing, prioritizing displaced tenants for subsidized housing, offering legal counsel to people facing eviction, and more.

Growing cities tend to allow more growth where renters, poorer people, and marginalized people live. This approach is politically easy but increases housing supply by displacing people with precarious housing. As Manville, Monkkonen, and Lens observe, “If cities worry upzoning will harm renters, then cities should upzone places where renters are least likely to live. This means upzoning R1.” Allowing a variety of growth can help produce workforce housing and middle-class housing on a city- and regional-level; tenant protections provide security at the neighbourhood and household level.

Subsidy addresses inequity

Properly regulated markets should be able to produce housing for working- and middle-class households, but many people will never be able to earn enough to pay for non-subsidized housing. Governments can and should fund the construction, operation, and maintenance of non-market and subsidized housing.

While federal governments funds support subsidized housing, local rules influence the cost and quantity of those homes. Cities that make it difficult to build market-rate housing tend to make it difficult to build non-market housing. For example, in 2021, Frances Bula found that "In the four years from 2016 to 2019, the city [of Vancouver] approved rezonings or development permits for 4,976 social or supported-housing units." Yet, "1,932 of the approved units have been built in the past three years. But 660 of those were the temporary modular housing apartments constructed in a big push in 2017 and 2018. That means only about 300 regular, permanent housing units have been built on average a year." 

The Feds can provide the funds, but cities must provide the change.

Phillips concludes by noting that “housing policy is too important, and too complex, for anyone to have all the answers. … It’s a big issue, and enacting the necessary solutions will require a big tent. Some of us are teachers; others are organizers. We may lead on one issue but follow on another. We don’t need everyone to become a dedicated advocate in all three areas. What we do need is to stop tearing people down for choosing a focus different from our own, or for emphasizing different priorities or speaking to different audiences.”

On September 14, Council will decide where to advance or reject these foundational pillars of housing affordability. Come join us as we speak up for the future of our city.

And as always, if you like what you read, share it with a friend or on social media!