The affordable housing sector in Alberta experiences many of the same challenges as other provinces and territories, in growing to meet increasing housing need, securing sustainable funding, and implementing operating models that are cost-effective and that achieve the best social outcomes. The per-capita stock of affordable housing in Alberta is significantly below the Canadian average, and the capital investments from government have not significantly expanded the stock in the past thirty years. This is the context in which the Government of Alberta is implementing an affordable housing strategy, announced November 2021, with an asset management and transfer plan that will have long-term impacts on the sector. The affordable housing strategy and asset plan are based on the Final Report of the Affordable Housing Review Panel that was released in December 2020. Elements of the Government of Alberta’s plan will significantly change the sector. Some of these changes are:
• Moving the Government of Alberta from being an owner of affordable housing assets, to regulating and funding housing programs;
• Enabling private non-profit and private for-profit entities to own/operate affordable housing through a partnership framework;
• Updating eligibility criteria and rent calculations for tenants;
• Creating a centralized housing portal to manage vacancies and waiting lists, and to standardize application forms;
• Updating the regulatory regime to facilitate growth in the supply of affordable housing, and
• Supporting innovative operating models such as mixed-income, mixed-use and mixed tenure housing.
How these changes will impact Albertans who rely on affordable housing, or who will have a need for affordable housing in the future, depends both on the content of government policy, and on whether or not housing providers can respond with effective and timely input into government policy decisions to adopt the innovative practices needed to succeed in an evolving environment.
The affordable housing providers among ASCHA’s membership of 100+ organizations have indicated that they need ASCHA’s support to navigate through this time of change. The affordable housing available in most parts of Alberta is operated by some of the same organizations that operate seniors housing. Many of these organizations have been ASCHA members since the 1960s, but because ASCHA’s mandate was exclusive to just seniors housing until a mandate change in June 2020, the association only represented these members’ seniors housing portfolios. In the absence of a strong sector organization for affordable housing, at a time when the province was signalling that major changes were afoot, ASCHA members voted in favour of the mandate expansion.
The ASCHA Affordable Housing Task Force first met in January 2021 and included ASCHA members from all regions across Alberta. The Task Force identified key areas where the sector would require support in responding and adapting to the system transformation described in the Final Report of the Affordable Housing Review Panel. Informed by the expertise of its members, ASCHA applied for funding from the Community Housing Transformation Centre to support housing providers in every part of the province to capitalize on opportunities, rather than succumbing to any enforced changes within the sector by drifting or sinking. ASCHA was successful in this funding application and is now launching the Supporting Affordable Housing Transformation (SAHT) project. This RFP is for work on Phase 1 of SAHT. ASCHA plans to apply for funding for two more phases once the project is underway and early project outcomes are demonstrated to the funder. Parts of the work carried out under this RFP will inform outcomes in the later phases of the SAHT project. Initial plans for Phases 2 and 3 have been shared with the funder.
