The St. Albert Housing Society is seeing exceptionally high demand but has managed to add only two units to its supply of low-cost rentals in the past five years.
Calls to the program average around 156 per year, but this year it saw 208 calls, according to data provided by the organization. Applications for the housing society’s subsidy program rose to 56 in 2023 from an average of 28 per year in previous years.
The increase comes at a time when housing society was already struggling to keep up with demand for its low-cost rentals and rental subsidies, according to Angela Pacholok, the organization’s executive director.
Part of the increase is due to the province’s population boom, Pacholok said. However, she estimates that newcomers to Canada are applying for the program’s services at higher rates than interprovincial migrants.
High housing costs have also added demand from young families, students and people who have recently lost jobs.
“St. Albert is a higher-rent community, which makes it harder for our lower income and younger families,” she said.
Rising development costs, development slowdowns during COVID and the difficulty of finding land to build on have made it harder for the organization to attract corporate partners, Pacholok said.
“Getting a project off the ground takes teamwork,” she said. “We really do have to bring many different players together.”
It’s a financial issue as well. “Grants are big hurdles for us,” Pacholok said. “We may not have the funding that [developers] need for us to partner with them.”
However, the problem is not that developers are unwilling to partner with the society. “It’s awareness — awareness that partnering with an affordable housing society is a possibility.”
The organization partners on projects that support both the low-cost rentals that are managed by the housing society as well as units that go for market rate.
“There has been success when you combine your regular rental with your affordable rental because nobody knows who’s who,” she said. “Everybody just treats everybody equally.“
In total, the organization has 29 units. Of those units, 27 are at the Big Lake Pointe apartment building in Ville Giroux, and another two are in a renovated bungalow in St. Albert.
The organization is directing those it can’t support to the St. Albert Food Bank and the St. Albert Family Resource Centre.
“We are also providing them with information on the Edmonton area,” Pacholok said. “But a lot of people that are looking for housing in St. Albert already have support here. It’s really difficult to leave a community when your support system is in that community.”
