I Used To Move A Lot, Now I Couldn’t Afford It
A personal story of the effects of unstable and unaffordable housing that reflects the reality faced by thousands of Calgarians
Howdy Neighbour!
This week we bring you a personal story from one of our members. It’s a familiar story, one of chasing suitable and affordable living conditions. You may find the story familiar, and if you don’t I suspect you know someone who does. Consider sharing it with them, and know that there are thousands of Calgarians facing living increasingly difficult versions of this story as we speak.
Remember that you can make sure your support for the Housing Strategy is heard on September 14. Even if you’re not able to speak, join us at noon at City hall to show your support and meet your fellow neighbours!
I Used To Move A Lot; Now I Couldn’t Afford It
By Kathryn Davies
I moved to Calgary in 2004 after graduating from university, and began working as a freelance musician and music teacher at a time when a musician could realistically aspire to own a home.
Within a year, that dream was dead.
Not only was home ownership completely off the radar for me at my salary, but the real estate frenzy of 2005 and 2006 (see the graph above) meant that I was constantly moving.
From September of 2004 to August of 2009 when I left Calgary for graduate school, I had eight different addresses. I would find myself looking for new housing when my current rental was sold, when the rent was raised astronomically, or when the roommate mix wasn’t working, for I certainly couldn’t afford to live alone. I became very adept at packing my things into my Toyota Corolla and calling a friend with a truck to move my bed and two bookshelves. I could pack and unpack in record time.
Moving typically didn’t bother me too much, and I never had trouble finding places to live as a single woman willing to live in shared housing. I never grew too attached to the places I lived except for one: the cute upstairs of a bungalow in Capitol Hill that I shared with my brother for a year, the longest I lived anywhere in that 5-year stretch. It was modest but had its own charm, and I had just started a corporate job so I had a bit of money to spend on pretty bed linens and second-hand furniture.
My brother and I settled in and lived there happily for a year. And then, the inevitable came: Our rent went up nearly 40% and we couldn’t afford to stay. I walk past that little house fairly regularly and every time I do I feel a pang of sadness at how devastating it was to leave.
Nearly two decades later I live comfortably with my family in a home that my husband and I own. We will likely live here for decades to come, and I will never again worry about my rent being raised or the house being sold under me. We have bought furniture, painted and decorated and made it our own. My children have their own spaces to which they are attached. We are lucky that we bought this house when we did: seven years later we are completely priced out of our neighbourhood.
I think back to how easy it was for me to move in my 20s and feel sheer panic at the thought of having to move now; to have to pack up a family’s worth of stuff, hire piano movers, uproot my kids from their bedrooms and their neighbourhood, leave our vegetable garden. And yet, that is happening to families throughout the city as housing prices skyrocket and rental supplies are squeezed. Calgary, like many cities, does not have enough purpose-built rental housing for any demographic, but there is a pronounced dearth of rental housing suitable for families which will become more of a problem as home ownership becomes ever more elusive.
A recent CBC News article on housing vulnerability summed up my sentiments:
"There are people who bought a house 10, 15 years ago and their mortgage payments are ultra manageable. And there's ... the rest of the people, who are faced with either move-up buys, buying for the first time, rental rate increases — and you'd be surprised how much the first group thinks zero about the second group."
It would be easy, as a securely-housed person to shrug my shoulders at the plight of those who didn’t get into the market in time, except that I know too many people who are directly affected by this.
Friends, neighbours, people across the income spectrum, people whose kids play with mine, whose lives are disrupted by inadequate supply of basic shelter and virtual absence of tenant protections.
I know what it’s like to be housing insecure, and to the extent that we as a society can prevent this, we absolutely should.
On September 14 the City of Calgary will revisit its Housing Strategy, which includes recommendations for increasing housing stability for households who rent. If you care about these issues, let City Council know.