The housing crisis will not magically disappear without bold action. Every day, 60 new people move into Calgary, totalling around 22,000 more people who need homes every year in Calgary.
Continuous greenfield suburban developments cannot solve this issue. We need to make it easier for more homes to be built everywhere.
Demand is outpacing supply, which results in higher housing prices, bidding wars on homes that hit the market and dozens of people lining up for the hope of an apartment they might be able to afford. Accounts of single mothers sleeping in their cars with their kids, or of seniors foregoing medication as their rents spiked, have filled news headlines for the past year. More than 80,000 households in Calgary cannot afford their rent, and pay upwards of 50 per cent of their income toward housing costs. Thousands of Calgarians are at risk of falling into homelessness.
Without action to increase the supply of homes throughout the city, this dire situation will worsen. The housing crisis will continue to spill over........