Calgary is putting five new city-owned sites up for sale for affordable housing, with priority access being given to Indigenous non-profits.

The five sites are a part of the latest round of the City of Calgary’s non-market housing land sale program, which makes the sites available at below-market value for eligible non-profits. Up to this point, the city has allocated $24.6 million in land value through the program.

The sites chosen include the following:

• 299 Erin Woods Drive SE
• 320 – 15 Avenue NE
• 108 Mission Road SW
• 1406 – 26 Street SW
• 11 Haddon Road SW

“The scale of the housing challenges that we’re facing right now continues to be significant,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

“The city is focused on increasing the supply of non-market affordable housing in Calgary, and one of the most meaningful ways that we can do that is through selling land below market value to help contribute financially to projects with the latest land sale.”

For this round of sales, there will be two application windows with the first open only to qualified Indigenous organizations, the mayor said. After that, the second window will be open to all eligible organizations.  The projects will also be supplemented with a $75,000 per door boost from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to help providers bring homes online quickly.  

There’s a four-year timeframe for the projects to be delivered and occupied, according to the City.

“We’ve moved to an annual cycle on these land sales so that we can bring properties forward to market faster and see homes opened to occupancy faster,” said Spencer McClurg with the City of Calgary’s real estate and development services.

Push for the redevelopment of these lands, says Coun. Penner

Coun. Kourtney Penner, whose Ward 11 encompasses the Haddon Road SW site, said that residents in the area have been talking about redevelopment of that land for some time.

“I’m really, really pleased that it’s coming forward next to transit and of course next to recreation with Rose Kohn (arena) being right there, close to schools and close to other great amenities and in a great neighbourhood I happen to be really fond of,” she said.

Penner said that with every new development, particularly those that are affordable housing, some residents won’t be in favour. She said many area citizens have said this would be a good place for this kind of development because of the area amenities.

“Of course, we know that not everyone is going to agree with that,” Penner said.

“So, we will have conversations there is always opportunity for feedback from the public with respect to the design, but we know that we need affordable housing, and this is a really, really excellent location.”

According to the City of Calgary, the sale of these sites will lead to approximately 290 new non-market homes.