Calls for help from the St. Albert Housing Society have nearly tripled in the last two years.
It’s for this reason and more Carol Sloan, CEO of the non-profit, hopes to pack the house for Unlocking Doors, a fundraising lunch at the Sturgeon Valley Golf and Country Club on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Doors open at 11:30 a.m. and tickets are available online.
Sloan said the services of the group, which since 2007 has helped folk find affordable housing and owns a 118-unit building that offers below-market rent, has more people walking through their doors.
“The calls have doubled, if not getting close to tripled, because people are really getting desperate out in the community,” Sloan said. “It's important that people realize that there's a real shortage in the community.
She said the 1.8 per cent of housing in St. Albert that’s classified as affordable is “pretty low considering that so many families are paying over 30 per cent of their income on rent.
“I think just about all of our tenants in the building that we have are going to the food bank and we have affordable rates on our units, so that's not a good sign of the times, really.”
Suzan Krecsy, director of the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village, said in August, 659 families, totalling 1,900 individuals, received hampers in July. Eight in 10 of them reported spending more than half of their income on rent.
“That number alone is quite unsettling because they’re one calamity away from being homeless,” Krecsy said at the time.
Affordable housing, specifically reducing the number of residents spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, is one of St. Albert city council's stated top priorities. The other is developing the Lakeview Business District, the $62.7-million servicing of which they all but approved earlier this month.
This year’s lunch is the 13th-annual affordable housing fundraiser. It will feature CTV Edmonton weather prognosticator Josh Classen emceeing and a guest speaker Rob Appleyard, executive director of the Brentwood Community Development Group and a director of the Alberta Public Housing Administrators Association and the Seniors Housing Society of Alberta.
It’s an important fundraiser and awareness event for the St. Albert Housing Society and its HOMEconnection program, which for up to a year helps bridge individuals and families of modest means to stable, safe and affordable living arrangements, according to the SAHS website.
“We're small, so we try to do our best,” Sloan said. “It allows the families to stay in their homes and continue getting food and clothing and medical care for them and their kids. I was just visiting a family yesterday and it really, really can affect the kids.
"We need to make this community viable for all different types because I think sometimes people forget about the workers that are struggling."