Even if you can afford your own housing, the lack of affordable housing in the city affects you. Here’s how...
• Without enough affordable housing, those in the non-profit sector, education, healthcare, childcare and the arts become the working poor.
“High prices lock out teachers, nurses, mechanics, social workers and many others who are essential to a successful, vibrant city,” says Sharon McCormick, executive director of Attainable Homes Calgary Corporation.
• High housing prices make entrepreneurs risk-averse — taking away from innovation and competition in our small businesses.
Any successful entrepreneur is aware of the financial challenges associated with getting a business up and off the ground, says Carolyn Davis, associated manager of development at Momentum, a local organization working with Calgarians to develop productive futures.
“Without affordable housing options, many of these would-be entrepreneurs are forced to stick to safe choices,” she says. “And that means we miss out on the tremendous economic value that would be created over time. Because rent is so high, making ends meet today is too much of a burden, so [those businesses] never happen.”
• Without affordable housing, newcomers are deterred from coming to Calgary.
“[Housing costs] impact our ability to attract people from different parts of the country, as well as people from other parts of the world,” says Elsbeth Mehrer, manager of Workforce Development with Calgary Economic Development. “If we have people looking to settle here, we want to make sure that there is a continuum of housing available.” The goal is to ensure that there is housing in the city that is affordable at all the available wages offered.
• When housing prices are too high, society’s most vulnerable are forced to choose between basic necessities like food, security, shelter and transportation.
“When housing is expensive, it takes a higher percentage of income or earnings and, as a result, people are left with really tough choices,” says Dan Meades, executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary. “Because they are spending so much on housing, they can’t afford all basic needs and, as a result, face some unfair choices between, for example, food for the kids and transportation to work.”
• An insufficient amount of affordable housing encourages people to accumulate debt, which can spiral quickly out of control.
Davis relates this point to the bigger issue of financial literacy. “Consumer debt levels are at a record high, but the majority of Albertans don’t have a budget,” she says. “When the bumps in the road arrive, families are not equipped with the skills to budget and refinance … And that puts our entire population potentially at risk for homelessness.”
• Without affordable housing options across the city, people are further from social resources, community support and work.
While some areas of the city are more affordable than others, not having affordable housing options across the city means that the cost is shifted from shelter to transportation — which is both expensive and time-consuming.
“You want to have that mix within communities so people have an opportunity to live and work in the same community. Or, so that someone who may be renting now and has developed support and social networks can remain in or near that community when they purchase a home,” says McCormick.
• Without access to affordable housing, women in abusive relationships are forced to stay in them for shelter.
“The lack of affordable housing or housing options for women is a huge barrier,” says Cynthia Wild, associate director of quality assurance at the YWCA of Calgary. “Women get paid less than men and many women, those who are not working, or those who are immigrants and who are maybe sponsored … they’re just so economically vulnerable that they do return [to abusive relationships] for shelter.”
While emergency shelters provide some time for women to get their feet under them, often it is not enough time and there is not enough room. The YWCA Mary Dover House is an 86-bed facility that provides emergency shelter and transitional housing for women and children. Last year, it served 339 women, but turned away 778 because there wasn’t enough space. If they can’t stay at shelters, women will couch-surf with friends and family until they aren’t welcome any more. Without a network of friends and family they will then choose to stay in or return to an abusive relationship because they have nowhere else to go.
• Without affordable housing, low-income earners are one paycheck away from being homeless.
“People are getting by, but because their housing is eating up such a large part of their income, they are not able to save for a rainy day,” says Michael Classens, strategy lead for the Poverty Reduction Coalition with the United Way. “Basically, it’s difficult to build stability and resiliency against their brushes with poverty.”
• The cost to society for affordable housing is less than the cost of homelessness.
“If we are making the choice of having a family move from being in stable housing to being homeless, the cost of that to society is huge. The other side of that coin is families that are living in safe, stable housing are much better able to contribute to society,” says Davis. In addition, the average homeless person uses $135,000 of public and private funding in health care and judicial and correctional services, while the average housed person uses $2,571 of health care and very little if any judicial or correctional services.
• Affordable housing is a major piece of the complex jigsaw puzzle of poverty
“Affordable housing is one piece of this really big thing,” says Meades. “Poverty is really a complex problem that naturally requires a complex solution. Our efforts will never be completely successful unless we’re looking at solving the whole puzzle, of which housing is one among many pieces.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment