Mayor to tackle “Calgary’s housing crisis”
Posted Jan 2, 2014 6:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Naheed Nenshi is voicing concern about what he calls a shortage of entry level and rental accommodation in the city.
In a year-end interview with 660News, the Mayor used the word “crisis” to describe the lack of affordable housing.
Nenshi says he doesn’t have all the answers, so he thinks now is the time to bring various stakeholders from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors together to discuss the problem and hammer out solutions.
Economists have warned a lack of affordable housing could stifle the parade of job seekers to the city; workers which are needed to help grow the economy.
The Mayor says lots of homes are being build in the city, but most of those homes are on the high not the entry level end of the business.
Ahead of the holidays, Calgary’s apartment vacancy rate was pegged at an even one per cent, which is still above the historic lows that were recorded before the recession of 2008.
Other 2014 priorities for the Mayor besides housing, the next four year budget cycle and working on a new big city charter with the Redford government.
