News Release: Enabling Housing Choice Project Phase 2 Completion
January 22, 2024
Housing, News Release
January 22, 2024
Housing, News Release
ALBERTA – January 22, 2023 — On behalf of the Rural Development Network (RDN), the Sustainable Housing Initiative (SHI) is excited to announce that we have completed the 2nd Phase of the Enabling Housing Choice project, which provided recommendations for increasing housing choice in six Alberta communities.
SHI is working to support housing development that is diverse and more affordable through its Enabling Housing Choice Project. This project was made possible through funding and support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF).
The purpose of this 2nd Phase has been to provide recommendation reports that promote housing choice and diversity in the Towns of Bow Island, Trochu, Mayerthorpe, Claresholm, and Pincher Creek, as well as the City of Airdrie. These reports have been informed by extensive research and community engagement, to better understand how the recommended changes can best address each community’s diverse housing needs.
“The Enabling Housing Choice is responding to the national housing crisis by working alongside municipalities in developing and implementing transformational policy change” says Linda Bernicki, Director of Community Development and Indigenous Engagement at RDN. “We are very excited to have completed the second phase of this project with these communities, and to help address the housing shortage in the community through transformational policy change.”
“This timely project seeks to find solutions to the housing crises being faced by municipalities across our province. As a foundation with real estate roots, we have the responsibility to explore how our funding programs can strengthen the real estate industry and can support consumers, whether as renters or homebuyers”, says Patti Morris, Executive Director of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. “We are honoured to invest in this effort to support diverse, sustainable, and equitable housing development in Albertan communities.”
Next Steps For the Enabling Housing Choice Project:
For further information about the Enabling Housing Choice Project, please visit: https://www.housingredefined.ca/enabling-housing-choice-project
For more information, please contact:
MEDIA CONTACTS
Linda Bernicki
Director of Community Development and Indigenous Engagement
lindab@ruraldevelopment.ca
Holly Udall
Marketing & Communications Manager
ABOUT THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
RDN is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates, supports, and champions rural community development through collaboration, research, and service provision. RDN supports the sustainability of rural communities and works with communities to amplify the “rural voice”. RDN collaborates to identify and bring focus to rural issues, build local capacity, and find innovative, rural-based solutions to unique issues.
To learn more about RDN, visit www.ruraldevelopment.ca.
ABOUT THE SUSTAINABLE HOUSING INITIATIVE
In 2015, RDN created the Sustainable Housing Initiative (SHI) in direct response to rural communities expressing their need for support in addressing the critical lack of affordable housing. This issue has not received the same attention and resources as it has in urban centres, and comes with unique challenges requiring unique solutions. The SHI conducts research, data analysis, produces housing needs assessments, business plans, financial analyses and more. This lays the groundwork necessary for projects to access funding from governments, banks, and other sources, which is often the biggest hurdle to overcome.
To learn more about SHI, visit www.housingredefined.ca.
ABOUT THE ALBERTA REAL ESTATE FOUNDATION
The Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) was established in 1991 to advance the real estate industry and strengthen Alberta’s communities. Created under the Real Estate Act after years of discussion between industry leaders and officials in the provincial government, the Foundation started making an impact right away by funding initiatives to help educate and train real estate professionals. AREF invests in real estate policy, research, practices, and education that strengthen Alberta’s communities.
To learn more about AREF, visit https://aref.ab.ca/.
Edmonton, Alberta – January 10, 2024 – The federal government has announced additional funding that will allow the Rural Development Network (RDN) to distribute approximately $4 million over the next two years to Alberta’s rural, remote, First Nation, and Métis Settlement communities through the Reaching Home Rural and Remote funding stream.
As the Community Entity for the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home Rural and Remote funding stream in Alberta, the Rural Development Network is currently accepting applications through a Call for Proposals to fund projects that aim to prevent or reduce homelessness in their communities. Alberta’s rural, remote, First Nations, and Métis Settlement communities and organizations are eligible to apply for funding to conduct projects in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. Projects may start as early as April 1, 2024 and end as late as March 31, 2026.
“Investing in these local solutions supports community-led projects that help those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. We will continue working with the Rural Development Network to support those most in need in rural, remote and Indigenous communities across Alberta,“ says the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities.
The additional $4 million in funding will be distributed to communities and organizations that aim to reduce or prevent homelessness outside of the 7 major cities in Alberta.
“As homelessness and housing insecurity continues to be on the rise in rural, remote and Indigenous communities in Alberta, it is increasingly important to support innovative and locally driven community responses to homelessness,” says Sydney Stenekes, RDN’s Director of Homelessness Initiatives. “We welcome the additional Reaching Home funding from the federal government and hope to support a diverse range of projects across the province, supporting both immediate needs and longer term solutions through this Call for Proposals.”
Eligible communities and organizations can apply through the online application form before February 9, 2024, 11:59PM MST. To reduce barriers for First Nation and Métis Settlement communities who are interested in applying for funding, the Rural Development Network has developed an alternative application process under the guidance and feedback of Indigenous partners; Indigenous communities or organizations may submit a letter of intent through the online application form in lieu of a general application. Selected applicants will then be invited to partake in an oral application process.
For more information about the 2024-2026 Reaching Home Call for Proposal, or to apply for funding, visit the Rural Development Network’s website.
This program is funded by the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy.
For more information, please contact:
MEDIA CONTACT:
Sydney Stenekes
Director, Homelessness Initiatives
1-613-986-5207
programs@ruraldevelopment.ca
ABOUT THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
The Rural Development Network is a not-for-profit that facilitates, supports, and champions rural community development through collaboration, research, and service provision. RDN supports the sustainability of rural communities and works with communities to amplify the “rural voice”. RDN collaborates to identify and bring focus to rural issues, build local capacity, and find innovative, rural-based solutions to unique issues.
ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA’S REACHING HOME FUNDING
Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy is a community-based program aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness across Canada. This program provides funding to urban, Indigenous, rural and remote communities to help them address their local homelessness needs.
Reaching Home supports the goals of the National Housing Strategy, in particular, to support the most vulnerable Canadians in maintaining safe, stable and affordable housing and to reduce chronic homelessness nationally by 50% by fiscal year 2027 to 2028.
ALBERTA – Oct. 3, 2023 – Earlier in 2023, the Rural Development Network (RDN) partnered with 21 communities across the province to capture a comprehensive picture of rural, remote, and Indigenous homelessness. The results indicated that women, 2SLGBTQIA+, and Indigenous people are disproportionately at risk of being or currently experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness across rural Alberta.
The data collected in March 2023 identified 2,429 survey respondents as housing insecure according to the national definitions of homelessness. Additionally, the 2,429 housing insecure survey respondents reported sharing housing insecure living conditions with 2,354 dependents and 2,537 adults. That is, based on survey results, at least 7,320 community members are experiencing housing insecurity in the 21 participating rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across the province.
More specifically, RDN discovered that:
“The data coming out of the 2023 provincial estimation are highlighting some very concerning trends – data indicates that vulnerable or minority population groups are at much higher risk for housing insecurity in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities,” says Emma Wallace, Project Manager of Community Development and Homelessness Estimations at RDN.
Based on the survey results, the top three reasons for housing insecurity across participating rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Alberta are:
The data also suggests that despite an employment rate of 64% among housing insecure respondents, 49% reported an annual household income of $49,999 or less in 2022. This, combined with the fact that according to the Economic Research Institute (2023), the cost of living is an average of 6% higher than the national average across all 21 communities and an average of 4% higher than the provincial average in Alberta across all participating communities, speaks to the main reported reason for housing insecurity among respondents: low wages. In other words, without adequate wages to match their communities’ cost of living, housing insecure respondents will continue to struggle with housing insecurity.
Survey respondents further indicated that increased availability of affordable housing, public transportation, and services would help improve housing insecure respondents’ housing situations.
“Our goal at RDN is to support rural, remote, and Indigenous communities to identify and bring focus to rural issues, including housing insecurity. Data collected in each participating community should allow them to better address housing insecurity locally and, when combined to reflect the provincial picture, will allow for improved provincial and federal decision-making and funding allocations to address rural, remote, and Indigenous homelessness,” says Wallace.
This is the third provincial estimation project that RDN has conducted with rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Alberta, with two other estimations conducted in 2018 and 2020 respectively. More information about these results can be found on the Rural Development Network website.
“The data provided by the Rural Development Network (RDN) in the 2023 Alberta Housing and Services Needs Estimation will help us make targeted decisions to address housing insecurities and other aspects of homelessness in Alberta. We will continue to work with partners to help create safe, stable, and affordable housing throughout Alberta and across Canada,” says The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages.
To learn more about the 2023 project, check out the 2023 Alberta Provincial Housing and Service Needs report.
This project was funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy.
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For more information, please contact:
MEDIA CONTACT:
Adrienne Vansevenandt
Marketing & Communications Manager
11443-143 Street,
NW Edmonton,
Alberta T5M 1V7
