City Hall -Photo by Lethbridge News Now

By Lara Fominoff

Housing demand

Two phase Housing Strategy presented to Lethbridge City Council

Apr 17, 2019 | 12:00 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – After nearly a year in development, a two-phase Lethbridge Housing Strategy was presented to Lethbridge City Council by the Municipal Housing Task Force, at Monday’s regular meeting (April 15).

The Task force was created in the summer of 2018 and Chaired by Councillor Belinda Crowson. It also included Mayor Chris Spearman, Councillors Blaine Hyggen and Rob Miyashiro, City Manager Bramwell Strain, and several departments.

“We went to the census data, and we really got an incredible understanding of what the gaps are, who the people are in Lethbridge,” said Crowson. “We used that and then we created the strategy from that; talking to the community and understanding who the priorities are, and then creating a strategy for the next few years on how to achieve that.”

The purpose was to identify needs and gaps not just in the community, but along the entire housing continuum; where they are, how they developed and how they can best be addressed – while also recognizing that the municipality is only one of several levels of government that need to be included in the solution.

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PHASE ONE

Housing Demand

The first phase of the strategy included an assessment of housing needs, demands and affordability. It included a public engagement phase, and a gap analysis – including where the housing needs were the greatest. Data and other information was gathered from The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Statistics Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association, provincial government, local housing authorities, non-profit housing sources and other community providers.

The first phase concluded that the population of Lethbridge is growing faster than the provincial average, that the city has a higher proportion of seniors than average, that the homeless population has grown significantly and consists of primarily indigenous peoples and males between the ages of 26-64. It also found that Lethbridge has a higher proportion of households with a member that has a disability, than the rest of the province – or even comparable sized cities like Red Deer.

Housing Supply

Most homes in Lethbridge are single detached homes, and that trend is expected to continue. The homeless shelter, meant as an emergency means of finding a place to stay, can not keep up with the demand being placed on it because of the increase in the local homeless population.

There is a range of supportive and transitional housing in the city, however the wait lists are too long and there is a need for more housing options. As well, there are also waits for non-market subsidized rentals but there is a need to increase affordable housing units for those with low incomes. In the meantime, the number of rental households is increasing.

Housing Gaps

Gaps identified by the Task Force show an increased need not only for more rental and affordable housing options, with the ageing population there is a large demand for housing with more supports and accessibility features. Ensuring current purpose-built rental stock remains in good condition is also on the list.

PHASE TWO

Housing Strategy

By 2025, the City hopes to have several measures in place, including adequate rental units in the primary and secondary housing markets, along with the programs to support them, a variety of integrated housing options – including those for seniors and/or the disabled that provide them with better supports and accessibility, to repair the existing primary rental housing market, and to create multiple medium and high density housing options. All of these items fall within the established “medium-term” action timelines.

According to the city, the hope is that 840 affordable units and 4,140 new units are created by 2025.

It’s not clear when that would begin, but information from a PowerPoint presentation indicates 140 new units created per year, with 105 of those units available for low income housing and 35 available to those with moderate incomes.

Crowson says while the provincial government announced $11 million for permanent supportive housing last December, there are also plans to submit an application for $5 million for an affordable indigenous housing project, a $4 million affordable housing project funded jointly by the City of Lethbridge and the province, to develop a $5 million micro-home project with funding from the federal government and private organizations, and developing a $10 million transitional housing project grant application.

“We know what the grants are, we have the data that we can just match up with the grant. We are going to be going after both levels of government. This will also be something useful for organizations, so that they can go after their own grants…there’s a lot of grants that are for third-party operators and we can help match those as well.”

The Community Social Development Department has now been directed to present an implementation plan and metrics no later than September 30, 2019. The housing strategy will again be renewed in 10 years.