Thank you so much for having us here today.
I'm going to say a few things that you have probably heard already, because they're important points. Alina just mentioned the value of ensuring that we listen to the voices of people with lived experience, and while this is a slightly different context, the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society has lived the experience of leading very complex plans in our community to end homelessness.
I am very proud to be the leader of the community organization that led that plan in our community, along with Jaime Rogers, who is one of my colleagues. I'm very proud that she has been personally responsible for leading that work in our community. In Medicine Hat, we have evolved as an organization that I lead, the housing organization that you would understand as your housing authority or housing management body. There are many of these across the country.
We've evolved in understanding the value not just of housing people in inexpensive housing; we also understand that people often walk through our doors with a multitude of barriers in their lives, affordable housing being only one of them. We have expanded our approach to not just the provision of affordable housing but also provision of connectivity to the community resources that are necessary to ensure that people have stability in their lives in all areas. We've included the development of outreach programs within our organization that work directly with people to address other issues in their lives besides housing. That is also the approach that is taken in our plans to end homelessness.
I want to speak to some very specific points that we believe are important elements around affordable housing. Then I'm going to let Jaime speak to some of the issues that are relevant. She's much more eloquent on this subject than I am.
From the viewpoint of an affordable housing lens, what we feel are the most important elements to focus on are lending our voice to the call for a national and provincial housing strategy; renewed government investment in new affordable housing options; repairs and upgrades to existing housing stock—we manage more than 500 social housing properties that are falling into disrepair because of not having attention paid to these matters—and exploring how current affordable housing options can best integrate with community systems. It is thus not just housing alone, but housing first.
There are also the elements of challenging and working alongside provincial and federal governments to rethink eligibility requirements and affordability criteria. The definitions we run on today are very outdated. They're actually many times inappropriately serving people who could manage on their own, and this does not leave us the flexibility to serve people who are in deeper need.
We are working in our organization towards the goal of providing a nuance and perspective to affordability, what we call “affordability indexing”. It will examine existing affordability rates and current subsidy rates based on adjusted income and will propose new rates based on total income, including income benefits that are provided to low-income families. Currently there are 291 households on the wait list for social housing in our community. This represents 505 individuals, including 109 children.
Access to safe, appropriate, and affordable housing, not only in our community but across Canada, is a national crisis. Increased investment in this area is necessary. With the development of a national housing strategy, we're optimistic that the strategy will include a comprehensive investment and implementation plan.
I think this is a key point in a strategy: that plans will go very slowly unless there is committed investment over the long term. Resources that have supported our plans to end homelessness in Alberta and in Medicine Hat were deeply invested in by provincial government, and that was one of the keys to our success, as well as promoting local decision-making, as you have already heard, and the authority to develop and invest in housing options for the local context. A community is in the best position to know what is going to work for its community members.
We need an accountability framework for those receiving funds for affordable housing, including provincial and territorial governments. With funding comes accountability, and with accountability comes a responsibility for delivering on outcomes. We know that works. We've been working under this framework for the last seven years.
Now I'll talk about long-term planning versus being reactionary.
Medicine Hat is recognized internationally as the first community to end chronic homelessness, yet one additional economic hit or natural disaster has the ability to set us back exponentially from where we are today.
Our systems, while robust and comprehensive, rely on continued and sustained government contributions. This economic hit could be gas and oil industry-induced or government-induced through lack of continued investment in strategies that have proven outcomes.
Lastly, poverty reduction is homelessness prevention. Access to appropriate housing should, therefore, be seen first from a perspective of a preventive response to homelessness. Currently, access to appropriate affordable housing is sometimes experienced by those living in poverty as a stroke of luck. We should not have to rely on luck to have appropriate housing.