Calgary’s population on the rise while affordable rental housing declines

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Professor Ron Kneebone of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.

A new study done by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy indicates while Calgary’s population has been rising, there has been a steep decline in affordable rental units.

Ron Kneebone of the School of Public Policy looked at rental units per 1,000 people across Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary between 1990 and 2016. During that period, Calgary’s population has increased by 96 per cent while at the same time, the number of affordable rental properties has reduced by 24 per cent.

Numbers in both Toronto and Vancouver have fallen, but not as much as Calgary. In Toronto, Kneebone said, the population has grown but the number of apartment units hasn’t changed very much, which has caused the ratio to go down.

“In Calgary, we’ve had very rapid population growth, we’ve almost doubled since 1990. But we’ve also reduced the number of apartment rental units by 24 per cent,” said Kneebone. “We’re getting this double whammy.”

Calgary is the only major city in Canada where this has happened and according to Kneebone this can cause social problems.

“It’s important for a city to have a reasonable number of apartment units so people with limited means have a place to live,” said Kneebone.

He said previous work at the school indicates Calgary is the most expensive place to live in Canada for someone with limited means to live.

Calgary has been trying to combat urban sprawl by building high-density housing. However, Kneebone said well-intended policy can hurt Calgary.

“If you’re going to demand a high-density city, you’re also saying I’m not going to zone land for a developer to build a three-storey walk-up, for example. So a three-storey walk-up is made of wood, there are no elevators and it’s relatively cheap to build. Therefore it’s relatively inexpensive to rent,” said Kneebone.

“But if the city is demanding highrise apartment buildings, which are made of concrete, they are expensive to build. The developer cannot rent those units for the same price of the three-storey walk-up.”

The study did not look at why this is happening, but Kneebone said one way to combat this decline in housing is to look at the public policy choices made by the city and the province.

“I suspect it’s got something to do with the fact that we’re more willing to allow landlords to convert apartments into condos. It may also be the case that Calgary is not zoning enough land for apartment construction. These are all good questions that need to be investigated.”

ajunker@postmedia.com

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Source: Calgary Herald