It is one of the sad ironies of a booming city, when vacancy rates are dropping and rental costs increasing, that problems of affordable housing become worse, not better, especially for those on fixed and low incomes.

We must make a major effort to address this growing problem. We cannot do this alone but must work closely with our two partners, the provincial and federal governments and, when necessary, we must not be afraid to advocate strongly for action and solutions. Many of the solutions lie within provincial jursidiction and the city does not presently have the legislative tools to respond alone. We must advocate both for legislative change that allows us to get on with it and for funding. We must also form partnerships with established non-profit agencies that have experience dealing with this issue. These agencies need and deserve our support.

We must commit to mandatory minimums of affordable housing being built in all new development. The main advantage of this policy is to ensure that affordable housing is integrated into the whole city and not ghettoized. We must be particularly vigilant where redevelopment is displacing existing affordable housing.

We must move with more speed to allow secondary suites to be more widely created. At minimum doing so will allow us to recognize many of the existing illegal suites and make sure they are safe and habitable.

We must also recognize that the question of affordable housing is actually about three different problems: 1.) affordable ownership, 2.) affordable rental, and 3.) transitional and shelter housing. In the case of the latter area we must also recognize that just providing shelter is not enough. The social service support must also be there. Most importantly we must remember that these are three linked but separate sets of problems and each must be addressed.

Supporting affordable housing is the right thing to do and is an investment in the future of our city. City Council must recognize and act on its responsibility to serve all the citizens of Edmonton.