Rental affordability crisis: Calgary Housing Company at capacity

One of the organizations tasked with helping Calgarians who fall behind on rent says it has been operating at capacity for quite some time.

If you find yourself looking for help paying rent, you may land on the webpage of the Calgary Housing Company (CHC).

The Calgary Housing Company has a few programs to help you if you find yourself falling behind on rent.

One of which, is the rent assistant benefit program backed by the province which helps pay the bill.

But, the CHC also operates as a landlord and offers subsidized places for people to live.

It acts as a landlord for over 3,000 deeply subsidized properties in the city, and also administers the rental assistance programs funded by the government.

There are two options for that — long term and temporary assistance.

But whichever stream you apply for right now, there will likely be some challenges.

Read more on the rental affordability crisis: 

• Rental affordability crisis: How much has rent gone up in Calgary? 

• Rental affordability crisis: Why has rent gone up in Calgary? 

• Rental affordability crisis: How are Calgarians surviving? 

George Abdalmessi is the vice president for customer experience for Calgary Housing Company and says the CHC is at capacity.

“There are approximately 47, 48 per cent increase in terms of the number of applications that are coming our way,” he explained.

There are 5,000 applications in the can with 500 more arriving each month to the CHC — and while the numbers vary case by case — they only process or place about 100 each month.

About 20 applications are signed up for rental assistance each month.

He says one of the biggest things that could help improve the situation would be more units

“Supply is key, and we would definitely like to see more supply coming onto the market,” said Abdalmessi.

“This is a complex issue that takes years so if we are having this challenge today, it’s only going to get worse if we don’t start working on getting more supply to the market.”

The CHC is also feeling the pinch and pain of the housing crisis and rising rent costs in Calgary.

The temporary rent assistance program will give a family needing a four bedroom home $342 a month towards their rent, but that doesn’t mean too much if your rent rises more than that.

“Our renters are increasing by $600, $700 starting from August or July and whatnot. This is going to add to the challenge that we’re facing as Calgarians – there’s always a limit for the subsidies that you’re able to provide and it’s not growing with the same percentages as the challenges,” explained Abdalmessi.

This is the fourth in a five-story series by CityNews on rent affordability in Calgary. Follow along for more coverage on how the rising cost of housing is impacting Calgary and what is being done to address the problem.