Municipal Identified Unique Housing Priorities
IT IS THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT Alberta Municipalities advocate for the Government of Alberta to engage municipalities and housing management bodies regarding the Standardized Template for an Affordable Housing Needs Assessment to ensure data collected and used in the Template meaningfully captures each municipality’s unique local context for housing needs, challenges, and barriers.
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta is developing a Standardized Template for an Affordable Housing Needs Assessment as a key action item outlined in Stronger Foundations: Alberta’s 10-year strategy to improve and expand affordable housing;
WHEREAS the Needs Assessment is intended to offer a standardized and comprehensive approach for evidence-based decision-making and is intended to support municipalities to identify and prioritize their housing needs;
WHEREAS each Alberta municipality has a unique household, geographic, and demographic context that informs their corresponding housing need;
WHEREAS while Federal Census Profile data is a valuable resource in identifying the overall housing need, additional local context is necessary to effectively maximize the efficiency, efficacy, and sustainability, of affordable housing investments;
WHEREAS data stories help make complex data clear and understandable through visuals and narrative and can provide municipalities opportunity to contextualize municipally identified priorities; and
WHEREAS smaller communities may need support in the form of access to funding and expertise to carry out the assessments.
Stronger Foundations is Alberta’s 10-year strategy to improve and expand affordable housing. It maps out the bold and thoughtful changes needed to provide safe, stable, affordable housing for an additional 25,000 households to increase the total number of households served to 82,000 – an increase of more than 40 per cent.
Albertans should have access to safe, affordable housing that meets their needs and promotes quality of life. The housing system should deliver innovative and sustainable affordable housing options to Albertans in need through partnerships with other orders of government, non-profit and private housing providers, and communities. The housing system will serve Albertans now and into the future
This resolution seeks to encourage the provincial government to work with municipalities to ensure that unique attributes and nuances of communities are understood and can be built into this body of work.
The Minister notes in his response to the resolution that “while the needs assessment consists of a standardized template, I recognize that each municipality faces different local challenges and barriers when it comes to housing need. As a result, the needs assessment template provides opportunities for municipalities to indicate additional data and distinct local attributes that may affect affordable housing needs in the area.”
Intent partially met – further action will be taken at a medium level of engagement.