Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me.
My name is Cathy Heron, and I am the president of Alberta Municipalities, as well as the mayor of the city of St. Albert. We're about 70,000 people, just north of Edmonton.
Affordable housing is obviously a vital issue for municipalities, not just in Alberta but everywhere. I'm so pleased to have the opportunity to share Alberta's municipal perspective as you consider options for the design and rollout of the housing accelerator fund.
Alberta Municipalities sincerely appreciates the Government of Canada's work over the past few years on the housing file, because, as municipalities, we know that adequate housing is essential to our citizens' health, safety, dignity and inclusion and, honestly, to their ability to contribute to the fabric of our communities. We strongly support the right to housing enshrined in the National Housing Strategy Act, and we applaud the federal government's significant investment to make this right a reality.
Municipalities are at the forefront of dealing with social and economic disorder that arises from homelessness and insecure or inappropriate housing. As a result, although housing is a provincial responsibility, when provincial policies and programs fail to resolve local housing issues, municipalities must do what they can to support their community and its well-being.
Alberta is challenged by a high demand for and a low supply of affordable housing, particularly deep subsidy housing. Using the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation definitions, nearly 500,000 Albertans are living in unaffordable housing, and about 164,000 households are in core housing need. Only 57,000 households currently live in provincially supported affordable housing, and over 24,000 households are on provincial affordable housing wait-lists. This means that 10% of Albertan households are in core housing need, but only 4% are receiving provincial assistance.
Last year, the Government of Alberta announced a provincial housing strategy that aims to assist up to 25,000 more households in the next 10 years. This will be accomplished by delivering 13,000 additional affordable housing units and providing rental assistance for about 12,000 more households.
While this represents a 44% increase in the number of households supported by the province, it still leaves over 83,000 households in core housing need. Furthermore, the province's capital plan shows investments in affordable housing decreasing by 27% over the next two years, which leaves us wondering how it can achieve the goal of developing 13,000 new units without the appropriate capital investment. Accordingly, the housing accelerator fund represents a tremendous opportunity for Alberta municipalities to help address the urgent need.
Alberta Municipalities believes that flexibility is the key to making this fund as effective as possible. Municipalities are highly diverse in terms of their local housing markets, their local housing needs and their capacity to adjust these needs. Local housing needs run across the affordable housing spectrum, from deep subsidy, permanent supportive housing for people transitioning out of homelessness, to the near-market housing that makes life more affordable for middle-class families.
My first ask is that the housing accelerator fund be as flexible as possible to support municipalities in adjusting their own unique housing needs and priorities. We are the experts in local land use planning and understand the housing needs of our communities as well as the barriers to those housing developments. Granting municipalities the flexibility to spend funds on local priorities will ensure that the goal of the housing accelerator fund can be achieved.
For example, several Alberta municipalities have existing programs designed to increase density and encourage housing development. For these municipalities the housing accelerator fund should permit investment in those existing programs. This will allow municipalities to speed up housing approvals and increase housing supply.
My second ask is that grants from the housing accelerator fund include sufficient funding to allow for the construction of energy-efficient homes and net-zero homes, because the ongoing maintenance and expenses of a house also contribute to its affordability. Having a common net-zero energy and climate-ready standard for all homes funded through this program will enable builders to learn and adopt the new practices needed to meet the future building code requirements designed to help address climate change.
In closing, I would like to thank you once again for the opportunity to present and for your efforts to truly collaborate with municipalities in designing this important program. I can now take any questions.