The St. Albert Housing Society has asked city council to consider restoring the $10,000 it cut from the group’s 2016 budget.
Gary Mitchell, chair of the society’s board, appeared at council on Monday to ask for the funding back. A letter from the society to council suggested the funding be taken from any 2015 surplus that’s available.
The St. Albert Housing Society did receive $102,090 from the city, but had requested $112,090, in line with the previous year’s request.
While $10,000 might not seem like much, Mitchell said that kind of money can go a long way for the organization.
“We could do a lot,” Mitchell said in an interview. “If we have to, we’ll do less. But we have to cover our overheads … and we have to have reserves for the program … so we just simply can’t go out and spend another $10,000.”
The society owns 17 units at Big Lake Pointe that are rented out for below market rates and also provides additional rental supplements through the HOMEconnection program.
Tash Taylor, the executive director, said the society has 26 people on the waiting list for the rental supplement program and fielded about 700 inquiries about the society’s programs and housing in 2015.
There wasn’t really much notice that a cut was on the table, Taylor said, and the housing society was the only outside organization to receive a funding cut.
“It wasn’t like there was a cut back all around,” Taylor said, adding that demand for the housing society’s services has been growing.
The society has an operating budget of about $183,000 and city contributes the majority of it while fundraising fills out the rest.
Some say the income generated from the rental units should be going to operation, but Taylor and Mitchell explained that there has been a long-standing policy to save the rental income as a down payment for future affordable housing purchases – and to build up reserves in case of funding cuts or to address emergencies or repairs.
“We want to have a cash reserve so we never have to go back to council and ask for more money,” Mitchell said.
The city collects property tax and utilities from the society, Taylor said. In fact, the housing society is appealing the amount of property tax that’s requisitioned.
After Mitchell’s presentation to council on Monday, Coun. Cam MacKay – who initiated the cut – commented that his understanding was that the society was supposed to move toward being self-sustaining.
Taylor said in the interview that may have been the plan when the society was first developed almost a decade ago, but it shouldn’t be the case now.
“A lot has changed since then, there’s increasing demand, the economics have changed,” she said.
Mitchell said the St. Albert Housing Society needs to work more closely with the city, because the group is hoping to buy more units. He’d like the city to give the society access to the low cost lending municipalities can access or to guarantee the borrowing, something he said would mean no risk to taxpayers.
In the end, Mitchell and Taylor worry about the potential for future cuts.
“This year it was $10,000, and there’s indications that it could be worse going forward,” Taylor said.
“That’s our biggest concern. What about next year?” Mitchell asked.
