The 2025 Alberta Provincial Housing and Service Needs Estimation Call for Applications is Now Open! 

Housing insecurity is a continued and increasing concern in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across Alberta and the entire country. When it comes to housing insecurity, the urban experience tends to dominate the conversation, mainly due to the visibility of unsheltered individuals experiencing housing insecurity in urban centres. The issue of housing insecurity in rural and remote areas is far less understood and acknowledged because of its hidden nature. Recent data suggests, though, that rural homelessness is prevalent at rates equivalent to or greater than urban per capita rates (Schiff et al., 2022). 

Recognizing this, the Rural Development Network (RDN) is conducting a 2025 Alberta Provincial Housing and Service Needs Estimation with 20 rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across Alberta to better understand what housing insecurity looks like in your communities and across the rural landscape.

With this in mind, we are calling on rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Alberta interested in a Housing and Service Needs Estimation to apply for a spot in the project. We will accept 20 communities. To qualify, you must be considered a rural, remote, and/or Indigenous community in Alberta and be willing to commit to the entirety of the project.

The Call for Applications is currently open to any rural, remote, or Indigenous community, municipality, governing body or not-for-profit organization across the province of Alberta. Participating communities must commit to providing a community coordinator on an in-kind basis for approximately four hours per week for the duration of the project to ensure its success.

How it works: The estimation coordinates a network of partner organizations to administer surveys to their clients over 31 days. Participating communities will receive a customized report for their community, which details the housing and service needs of participating residents. In addition, a provincial report highlighting data from all 20 communities will be released to showcase the state of housing insecurity across the province.

For more information about the project and the application process, REGISTER HERE for our upcoming information session! The session will be held on Zoom on Tuesday, May 13th from 1-2:30pm MST. If you cannot make the session or have other inquiries, please reach out to Emma Wallace (Program Manager, Community Development and Homelessness Estimations) at emmaw@ruraldevelopment.ca / 613-229-1144. 

Please note that while Emma’s phone number is an Ontario phone number, she absorbs any and all long-distance charges associated with cross-provincial communications.