Dollars to doors was how Mayor Jyoti Gondek has described multiple government-funded housing projects that are ahead of schedule in Calgary.
The federal government awarded the City $228.5 million through the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) in 2023, and the City of Calgary set out to incentivize 43,000 new housing units built by Oct. 2026.
That goal was exceeded by the city in June, a year and a half ahead of schedule.
“In just 20 months, the city has already incentivized the delivery of more than 44,000 units, achieving 104 per cent of our goal,” said City of Calgary Chief of Housing, Reid Hendry.
Hendry said that because of the city’s quick action in utilizing the funds, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation provided an additional $22.8 million in March to further encourage housing supply growth in Calgary.
According to Hendry, the city has achieved 103 per cent of its multi-unit target and 152 per cent of its multi-unit near transit target.
The city is also on track to achieve targets related to missing middle housing—semi-detached, row, townhouse housing—and affordable non-market housing.
Hendry said that $53 million from HAF has gone towards 6,000 secondary suites, $52.5 million for 700 homes created through the office-to-residential conversions and non-market land sale program, and $29 million for 400 non-market homes.
Putting Calgary families into homes
The announcement of the success of the HAF funding was made at 11 Haddon Road SW, next to the Heritage LRT Station.
“In fact, this parcel of land behind me was sold to a non-profit called Liberty Housing, and they will be developing this site into nearly 200 units of non-market housing thanks to both the non-market land sale program and the half investment from our federal government partners,” said Hendry.
Calgary Confederation MP Corey Hogan said that since its announcement in 2023, HAF funding in Calgary has been put into the right places.
“Calgary has been bold and decisive in its commitment to get housing built for those who need it, from streamlining approvals to investing in transit-oriented and downtown development, Calgary has more than answered the call,” he said.
Hogan said that, admittedly, he was biased, but that cities across Canada could learn from Calgary in many ways, including the construction of housing.
Addressing a long-standing claim from critics of upzoning, Mayor Gondek said that the HAF funding provided by the Government of Canada was not tied to rezoning occurring in Calgary.
“There was no stipulation that we had to pass any type of rezoning; there was none,” she said
“What we chose to do when it comes to rezoning is something that council took on on its own. So, the funding that you see with the Housing Accelerator Fund was not tied to that. The announcement that came from the federal government about that came later, after we received our funding.”
