The Calgary Housing Company (CHC) will get a critical injection of provincial cash to help deal with repairs and maintenance on provincially owned stock that was deemed high risk in a recent asset audit.

On Wednesday, the province announced $16 million to upgrade 400 affordable housing units across the province, among 30 housing providers in Alberta.

Included in the announcement was $2.75 million for the CHC.

“This investment will support housing providers to keep affordable housing online across our province. We will continue to partner with these organizations to ensure we maintain and grow our affordable housing infrastructure across Alberta,” said Jason Nixon, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, in a prepared release.

The CHC manages roughly 2,700 provincially owned social housing units. Of that number, 866 are on city-owned land. The median age of these properties is 43 years, they said.

In an Oct. 12 admin report that went to the City of Calgary’s audit committee, it ranked capital infrastructure as the highest risk, with “certain likelihood and significant impact.” 

“This risk ranks highest for the Provincially owned social and community housing portfolio, due to limited approved Capital Maintenance Repair funding provided by the government of Alberta (GOA),” the report reads.

“The GOA currently provides funding for emergency repair only on a case-by-case basis The operating and capital maintenance budget for provincially owned housing is insufficient to meet minimum operating requirements.”

In the CHC annual report to the audit committee, it said that lack of funding could result in asset failure, closing of residences or buildings, increased operating costs, erosion of community well-being and increased homelessness.

It said that over the past three years, they’ve only received a quarter of capital requests submitted to the province, as their capital deficit grows.

“This increases the number of emergencies repairs [sic] and heightens the risk of asset failure,” the report reads.

The report indicates a trickle-down impact as well, with financial and legal risks associated with deteriorating conditions. To complicate matters, the report shows that the provincially owned stock is operating under an expired agreement, “making it unclear who bears the responsibility for asset funding and maintenance.”

Where will the funding go?

The CHC said, in an emailed statement sent to LiveWire Calgary, that the funds will help to ensure the continued operation and availability of provincial housing units they operate.

“We appreciate the supplementary $2.75M funding announced today,” said Bo Jiang, VP Maintenance and Asset Management.

“The funding received will be used to address the highest priority work.”

Work will begin quickly, as funding has to be spent by March 31, 2024. CHC said that the work is already in procurement and will start in December.

CHC will use $1.2 million for roofing projects at six properties covering 81 units. A further $800,000 will be used for the renovation of 50 units and will include kitchen and bathroom cabinet replacement, tub and tile replacement, flooring and painting.

The final $750,000 will be used on other lifecycle projects that include elevators affecting 200 units, plumbing and boiler maintenance and replacement (combined 112 units).

“With current demand for affordable housing and significant challenges across the entire spectrum of the housing market, it is more critical than ever that existing housing assets are properly maintained to ensure their long-term availability,” said Jiang,

“This will require ongoing investment and today’s announcement is an important part of meeting this goal.”

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said it’s a good day any time there’s funding for housing. It just doesn’t address a significant need.

“However, I would say that this provincial government really does need to step up in a bigger way,” she said.

“These are their units. So, we are expecting more to come. The 16 million announced from the province really only results in 2.7 million for Calgary and much more as needed. They are partners with us on this and we’re going to need to see more funding.”

CHC said that this money is in addition to capital maintenance funding cash received earlier this year. Prior provincial funding covered interior renovations for 200 units. They said that the province is conducting building condition assessments over the next couple of years to determine the unfunded capital maintenance that remains. CHC said they prioritize annual capital maintenance and repair funding requests based on units/buildings in most need.

As of October 2023, there are more than 5,600 people on the CHC housing waitlist. They currently house more than 27,000 Calgarians in 6,789 homes.