Reid Hendry said it’s his job to be the face and voice for housing within the City of Calgary.

Hendry, the City’s newly minted chief housing officer, met with media on Monday and said that there’s a council-approved strategy that he’s here to help execute.

“When you have one in five households struggling for housing, when you have 85,000 plus households and growing concerned about how they’re going to make ends meet, with the largest part of their bill being housing, it really necessitated this role,” Hendry said.

“It necessitated somebody to provide that elevated leadership, that guidance around the housing portfolio, and do everything within the city of Calgary’s power to deliver that housing more effectively, efficiently, affordably.”

Hendry, 33, is Calgary born and raised, and while he comes with a science education, his career track has been in private sector land development. He’s been Senior Development Manager at Beedie, Director of Development with Trico Residential and Development Manager with Highfield Land Management.

He’s also served on NAIOP Calgary’s Government Advisory Committee, the City of Calgary’s Development Advisory Committee and the New Community Working Group. Hendry said bringing the private sector perspective to city administration will be helpful.

When he interviewed for the job, Hendry said he approached it by thinking about who would be the best person to make a difference for housing in Calgary.

“It’s my belief, then, as it is now, that it requires somebody that has cultivated a long history of private side experience and, frankly, cultivated a lot of trust with that industry,” he said.

“What we are seeing is that these things are incremental. They’re going to take time, and in that, I think it’s going to require a lot of trust to get that done.”

Hendry also said coming from the private side brings the perspective of where the true issues are in how the City interacts with private partners, including the process.

Citywide rezoning: Anecdote is not data

Hendry put his proverbial lab coat on, responding to questions around the apparent anger and the trust around citywide rezoning. Citywide rezoning was approved last year, and after only two quarters, there’s been a spike in development permit applications for RCG and HGO land use designations.

“I come from a science background, so we always like to say, anecdote is not data, right?” Hendry said.

“But at the same time, an anecdote really speaks well to what the people on the ground are feeling.”

Hendry said there needs to be an honest conversation to be had around what’s being said and what’s being heard.

“I’m put in a position where I need to balance the fear and the comments and the concerns that I’m hearing from local communities with also the concerns and the fear of people who can’t be adequately housed in our city,” Hendry said.

“I acknowledge that it’s a very difficult, tight rope to walk, but I think what’s important is, you go into those discussions eyes wide open, recognizing that it’s only natural that change is going to have to occur, and now let’s have a conversation around how that change is integrated.”

He pushed back on reporters suggesting there’s a general opposition to citywide rezoning. Hendry said that 83 per cent of people surveyed through the housing affordability task force said they want affordable housing in the city.

“I think what we see is a bubbling up of sentiment that is potentially more vocal than others or has more access and opportunity to be more vocal than others,” he said.

Hendry also said that citywide upzoning is also only one of 98 actions in Calgary’s overall housing strategy.

Fringe growth and established area density

Whether it’s upzoning or single-family, established area growth or new growth, Hendry knows there are tough conversations ahead. He said he’s willing to have them.

He said that his private industry experience is going to be valuable. Hendry said he’s spent a lot of time in open houses, around poster boards, having tough conversations with residents who say, “that was my view. That was the field my kids ran in.”

“Frankly, the house that you currently live in was also the field that the next people, closer to the city center, their kids ran in,” he said.

“You were part of the change. So, the world, whether we like it or not, does not stop moving.”

To that end, Hendry said that growth in Calgary’s suburban areas is an important part of the mix of homes that Calgary needs in order to ensure that everyone has a roof over their heads.

He joked that he was born in the suburbs, the deep southwest (which now looks like inner city southwest, Hendry said), but his wife keeps texting him about inner city properties.

“I’m a suburban kid, through and through, a suburban adult, so I really value what we do in the suburbs,” he said.

“I want to say we don’t deliver the suburbs today in the fashion that we did in the 1960s. The density, the mixed use, the approach to the planning is fundamentally different. Our suburbs today, on a density basis, on a unit delivery basis, are often more efficient than some of the existing inner-city communities that we have.”

Hendry also noted the robust levy system that Calgary has in place for developers. It helps ensure that growth pays for growth, he said.

Ultimately, he said it’s about delivering the right style of housing to people with different needs and income levels, Hendry said.

Support from councillors

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said that she’d love to see the Chief Housing Officer for the City of Calgary help to build trust with both industry and with citizens. Though, she said the trust aspect should come from the elected officials – particularly after citywide rezoning.

“Elected officials direct policy. This was a direction from Council. This was not something that came from administration. They were directed to do this work,” Sharp said.

She said there are a lot of excellent aspects of the City’s housing strategy, and it is delivering housing for Calgarians. That was never the issue, removing citizens from the decision-making was a deal breaker for her.

“(Citywide rezoning) was kind of pushed on Calgarians, and they weren’t ready for it,” Sharp said.

“I know people say, ‘well, change is hard.’ It is to a point, but Calgarians built the city, so let them decide what needs to be moving forward when it comes to kind of redoing their communities.”

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, a champion for the housing strategy said it was great to have someone in a role to carry forward the vision of making sure more Calgarians could have homes.

“We built a position for someone to protect that strategy. There’s a person who now works for this city, that its only job is to steward the housing strategy,” he said.

“It’s another reason why I’m very comfortable in handing off the torch to someone else to carry this forward.”

Walcott said that it takes a long time to build relationships with people so that they see that you have their best interests at heart.

“It’s that feelings part that I think is often missed in a bureaucracy, and that’s the part that I think (Hendry’s) going to be really good at.”

Hendry said the housing strategy is young. He said it’s a living document. People can expect there to be changes and tweaks along the way.

“I’m hopeful and optimistic that we continue to see the incremental adjustment in how we build this city that will work to push us in the right direction of helping the overall housing affordability attainability crisis that we’re currently in,” he said.