Rural Development Network Launches Alberta’s Fourth Provincial Housing & Service Needs Estimation

Canada – August 2025

RDN is set to launch its Provincial Housing & Service Needs Estimation this October, a critical initiative aimed at better understanding housing insecurity across the province. From October 1 to 31, 2025, 21 organizations and municipalities representing over 64 rural, remote, and Indigenous communities will participate in collecting localized and regionalized data to build a comprehensive picture of housing insecurity and service needs across the province.

This collaborative effort marks the fourth iteration of the estimation and reflects a continued need for current, accurate, and meaningful data on housing insecurity and service needs in communities and across the province. The process supports the development of responsive, evidence-based solutions tailored to local realities, while also contributing to a broader understanding at the provincial and national levels.

The initiative is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, a program committed to reducing and preventing homelessness nationwide, the Tenaquip Foundation, and the Catherine Donnelly Foundation.

“By working together across rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, we’re able to capture and highlight the diverse experiences of housing insecurity in Alberta. This data is essential to influencing policy, practices, and funding decisions on housing insecurity while also shaping service provisions in the community,” said  Emma Wallace, Program Manager of Community Development and Homelessness Estimations at RDN.

A wrap-up event is planned for Spring 2026, where findings will be shared publicly and used to inform community planning, funding strategies, and policy development at all levels.

Participating Communities Include:
Athabasca, Barrhead, Bow Valley, Camrose, County of Grande Prairie, Drayton Valley, Driftpile Cree Nation, Foothills, Frog Lake First Nation, Hinton, Kneehill County, Lac La Biche, Lloydminster, Peace River, Rocky Mountain House, St. Albert & Sturgeon County, Sundre, Taber, Tri-Region, Westlock, and Whitecourt.

To learn more about the project, please contact the project lead, Emma Wallace, at emmaw@ruraldevelopment.ca

ABOUT THE RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK

We are a non-profit organization that works with rural, remote and Indigenous communities and organizations in Canada. We collaborate to identify and bring focus to rural issues, build local capacity, and develop innovative, rural-based solutions to social and economic challenges.

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