Calgary faces a problem with affordable housing that many other growing urban centres in North America are also facing: what affordable housing there is for working families exists on the edges of the city. Along with many other cities, Calgary's suburbs continue to expand outwards and this is where cheaper housing lies, not in the additional density being added to the inner city.
According to the U.S. Centre for Housing Policy, for every dollar a family in the U.S. saves on housing, it adds 77 cents to its transportation budget. The choice for many families is between more affordable housing and a longer commute. And a longer commute of course comes with not only a time burden, but an additional financial burden for gas.
In their study A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families, the Centre reported that the average urban family spent 58% of their income on the combination of transportation and housing. This seems to show that a discussion of true affordable housing can't be separated from a discussion of the location of that housing. In other words, we don't really make housing more affordable if it's too far from amenities, schools and workplaces. We have to build communities that reflect the city and include affordable housing both in existing and new communities if we want to create a city where all of the people we need to run our city (not only CEOs, but teachers, nurses, police officers, shop clerks and so on) can afford to live.
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