A bright spot could soon soften the dark rain cloud of Calgary’s housing crisis, as elected officials announced funding for non-market housing projects city-wide. 

On May 12, Mayor Jyoti Gondek announced the recipients of a share of $30.7 million to several local non-profit organizations to assist them in executing their affordable home plans — a step toward completing the first phase of the Housing Capital Initiative (HCI). 

The city received 13 applications for the grant and Chief Housing Officer, Reid Hendry, said that they narrowed the pool down to the seven who best demonstrated their ability to deliver fast results.

Despite not giving a timeline for when the second half of the funds is expected to be allocated, Hendry said that six out of the seven current partners are confident they’ll deliver results within 24 months. 

“I look forward to seeing not only this slate of projects come to fruition, but what we will achieve for Calgarians in need of affordable housing through future rounds of this fund,” he said.

The chosen organizations include Silvera for Seniors, Liberty Housing Organization, HomeSpace, Attainable Homes Calgary, Metis Calgary Family Services, Calgary Heritage Housing, and the Victory Foundation. It’s expected they will complete 480 homes.

In an effort to address homelessness and market insecurity, the council passed The City’s Housing Strategy in September 2023, which outlined a checklist of 98 actions aimed at increasing housing supply. 

Paving the way for the HCI to begin its inaugural phase, the council approved $60 million for investment in groups seeking to create new non-market housing over three years. The city intends for the partners to use the funds as leverage for obtaining additional investments from the provincial or federal government. 

Mayor Gondek said that since November 2023, the city has made strides toward completing 85 per cent of its 98 housing goals. She expressed that homelessness is a serious problem in Calgary and said that her government has made alleviating it a priority. 

“We have incredible places for people to live if they have the means, and we have so many people in our city that simply do not,” she said. 

“We cannot be a city that doesn’t take care of everyone, we need to be a city where everyone can live with dignity.”

Who qualifies, where will they live, and when?

When sifting through HCI applications, the city gave precedence to non-profit organizations that proposed housing projects in equity-deserving communities. Hendry said this meant focusing on places with heightened diversity, like its senior, female, single-parent, and Indigenous population. 

Additionally, he said that they looked for neighbourhoods with seamless access to transit and shopping amenities.

The largest share of the fund, valued at $7.3 million, was given to HomeSpace’s project, which will develop 52 homes in the northeast community of Horizon. Also in the northeast will be Silvera for Seniors’ 16 new homes in Livingston. 

In other quadrants of the city, the northwest will gain 57, the southeast will gain 72, and the southwest will gain 283 homes. 

Although the criteria for who will qualify as tenants of the homes will likely differ between the projects, president of Attainable Homes Calgary (AHC), Jaydan Tait, said that their developments will serve people earning around $44,000 a year. 

“Many of them have good, honest jobs, working full time — they just don’t make enough money to afford the average rent or the average cost of buying something,” he said.

Tait said modular homes are a quick and effective solution. 

Built in a climate-controlled ATCO factory located in the city’s southwest, he explained that the modules are constructed on an assembly line and completed in just over 20 days. 

One of the AHC’s finished projects is located at 1010 6 Avenue SW. Just beside it are two active construction sites that, with help from the city’s funding, began development in April. 

By August, Tait said there will be a six-storey modular apartment building. 

“It is a made in Calgary, Alberta, and Canada solution with local businesses coming together to attack the affordable housing supply crisis,” he said.