Avenue Magazine Calgary

Changing the View of Affordable Housing

Posted by Kathe Lemon in The Big Idea on Feb 25 2010 09:47

The idea of affordable housing is often not very palatable to neighbours for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons are logical, even if misinformed, some are rationalizations and some are emotional.

We often think that affordable housing in a neighbourhood will bring nearby property values down. After all, that's how we believe the market works — if there's a cheap option in the same area, it will decrease the value of everything. But over an over, studies have shown that when affordable housing is built well, this is not the case.

In 2006, the City of Calgary conducted a study that looked at home values between 2000 and 2004 in communities with affordable housing, looking both at a block with affordable housing and a control block without and found that property value increases were virtually identical. The study examined the communities of Wildwood, Altadore, Bowness and Whitehorn and found that property value increases in the block with affordable housing was almost the same as the percentage increase in the control block. In Whitehorn in fact, the block with affordable housing increased in value more than the control. You can find more in the City's report Straight Talk on Affordable Housing.

Another reason people react against affordable housing is that the idea they have of affordable housing is essentially a slum, or the kind of giant housing projects that were promoted in the 1960s and have been a failure almost everywhere they've been attempted. Successful affordable housing has to mean housing that people want not only to live in, but to live next to. How we get to that measure of success is one of the biggest hurdles for Calgary right now.