Written for the Lethbridge Herald by Mayor Bob Tarleck, March, 2008

If Lethbridge were to follow the Chinese tradition of giving each year a propitious name, this could be The Year of Affordable Housing. Admittedly, this proposal departs from the Chinese tradition of naming a year after a real or mythical animal. But the case could be made that homelessness is a dragon we must work together to slay.

Even before the Province of Alberta transferred funding and responsibility for housing to municipalities earlier this year, the City of Lethbridge was engaged in the homeless issue. In 1997 Council adopted four recommendations presented by a housing committee it had established earlier that year and in 1999 a Community Action Plan was presented to City Council. With the availability of federal and provincial funding, City Council committed to implementing a Community Plan for Lethbridge, with SHIA (Social Housing in Action) assuming responsibility for turning the plan into reality.

In approving Bringing Lethbridge Home in 2005, City Council was making a commitment to end homelessness in our community. The guiding principle of this document is that “all people have the right to safe, appropriate and affordable housing.”  Underlying this is the belief that affordable housing is a good business model and that failure to take action is more expensive than practical, carefully-implemented housing programs. Such programs can strengthen families and assist the one-in-five children currently living in impoverished homes.

This winter the City has taken a number of concrete steps to address the shortage of affordable housing in Lethbridge. In January it committed to utilizing the former Village Inn as a temporary housing campus until the building is taken down to make room for a new fire hall. The City also forged a partnership with Lethbridge Housing Authority to purchase the Castle Apartments so that it might protect tenants from either dramatic rent increases or the conversion of their units into condominiums. Either of those options would impact those residents who are least able to adjust to the shock of sudden rent increases.

Lethbridge City Council took four additional measures to get more affordable housing units on the market. First, it approved a resolution presented by Alderman Lacey calling for the use of “Innovation Zones” to demonstrate the effectiveness of alternative ideas in housing developments.

If the traditional strategies are no longer working for many of our residents, we need to look for new ways to develop attractive, sustainable housing that is an asset to neighborhoods.

Council also approved a resolution on secondary suites submitted by Alderman Wickersham. That resolution directed the City to explore how secondary suites might enable the City to get more affordable housing units into the rental market quickly.
A third step took the form of an urgent request to the federal government to make a long-term commitment to a Canadian housing program. One of the federal government’s core housing programs, for example, the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program, is slated to expire in March, 2009. Lethbridge property owners have accessed this program to rehabilitate homeowner and rental properties for many years. It is obvious that the challenge of housing Lethbridge’s vulnerable families and individuals would be made even more difficult if for every new affordable housing unit we brought to market, we were to lose one due to disrepair.

And finally, the City urged the federal government to consider targeted amendments to the Taxation Act to spur increased charitable participation in the affordable housing sector.

If we do all this, we can slay the dragon.