COVID-19 Shines a Light on the Importance of Home

The COVID-19 Community Affordable Housing Advocacy Plan (the Plan) seeks to harness the attention the pandemic has brought to the importance of home and immediately make marked progress to address Calgary’s affordable housing supply gap. The Plan was developed this summer by more than 40 organizations from the non-profit, private and government sectors. It highlights the urgency of housing as a key factor underpinning individual and community health in advance of future waves of COVID-19, and focuses on stimulating Calgary’s struggling economy through the activation of stranded hotel assets and support for the construction and real estate sectors. Seeking Federal and Provincial funding, the Plan, if executed, would:

  • Deliver housing for up to 12,000 Calgarians, meaningfully addressing homelessness in our city and addressing a long-standing affordable housing deficit;

  • Build and/or secure more than 5,400 new homes – increasing the asset base of the non-profit housing sector and reducing operators’ reliance on future government funding;

  • Leverage economic conditions favourable to real estate acquisition and construction and mitigate potential collapse of the tourism and residential sectors by securing homes for those who need them; and

  • Immediately create 2,800 residential construction jobs across 22, shovel-ready non-profit affordable housing construction projects. The overall economic activity generated in the region would be $765M.

Further advocacy to advance the plan will resume in September. Please contact Jessica if you are interested in supporting this work.

Review the full COVID-19 Community Affordable Housing Advocacy Plan, here.

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