Western Standard - March 11, 2024


$840 million investment Alberta affordable housing

Mentioned
Civita
Alberta RCMP announce conclusion to high-profile investigation Notley, Smith clash over school projects

Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

177.1

Word count

1,391

Sentence count

56


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with Alberta s Premier Rachel Notley. In this episode, Rachel talks about the need for affordable housing in Alberta and how her government is working with non-profits, municipalities, and the housing industry to address the housing shortage in our province.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.240 Civita works tirelessly to ensure every Edmontonian has a safe, appropriate, and affordable place to call home.
00:00:06.920 In fact, Civita, in partnership with the Government of Alberta, actually provides over 15,000 people in the Edmonton area with an affordable house,
00:00:14.720 which is 15,000 people with a home that would otherwise not be able to afford it, or would at least struggle to be able to afford to pay for their home.
00:00:22.040 We value that partnership with Civita and all of our housing partners,
00:00:25.380 which includes dozens of housing providers and non-profits across the province who work together with seniors, community, and social services each day
00:00:33.180 to provide tens of thousands of affordable homes to Albertans.
00:00:37.180 Now, more than ever, with the changing landscape on housing, it is crucial to come up with solutions with our partners to ensure Albertans have homes that meet their needs,
00:00:46.440 which is why Alberta has made significant investments in increasing the stock of affordable housing through measures like capital grants,
00:00:52.920 supports for housing providers to tackle increased costs, and investments in rental assistance.
00:00:58.620 At the same time, we are working across the province to enable our industry to increase the supply of housing in our market.
00:01:05.600 Together with our partners, we are in the process of investing $9 billion to create 13,000 more units of affordable housing by 2031,
00:01:14.300 and today's announcement moves forward with that commitment.
00:01:16.500 We have also already invested and created 5,000 more units of affordable housing since 2019.
00:01:23.120 We also continue to invest in rent supplements, currently investing over $1.25 billion over the next three years
00:01:28.700 to help over 12,000 households in our province meet their rent obligations that otherwise would struggle.
00:01:34.140 This is on top of a $5.1 billion investment in affordability measures
00:01:38.660 and the billions of dollars that we continue to invest in our social services sector through our ministry
00:01:43.460 to be able to make sure that Albertans can meet their needs.
00:01:46.740 On top of that, we continue to be very focused on red tape production and infrastructure supports
00:01:51.480 to be able to support our industry, to be able to move the barriers out of their way
00:01:55.180 to make sure that they can continue to create tens of thousands of new homes across the province.
00:02:00.100 And these efforts are working.
00:02:01.540 2023 was a record-breaking year for housing starts in our province,
00:02:05.220 including the highest number of purpose-built rentals in Alberta's history.
00:02:09.180 While residential construction slowed across Canada,
00:02:11.660 Alberta continued to be the outlier,
00:02:13.900 with the number of homes being built in our province continuing to grow quickly.
00:02:17.920 Our government understands that increasing supply is the key to addressing the housing challenge in our province
00:02:23.040 and continues to work with both non-profits, municipalities, and the housing industry
00:02:27.600 to make sure that we have the supply that we need to maintain affordability in our market.
00:02:32.580 To support this, Alberta's government is making significant investments into affordable housing
00:02:37.040 through building new units of housing, providing rent supplements for those living in market rental,
00:02:42.320 and market repairs to existing affordable housing stock
00:02:45.220 so units can remain open or be brought back online to provide a safe place for Albertans to call home.
00:02:51.280 Which brings me to today.
00:02:52.460 I'm proud to announce that in Budget 2024 and the capital plan for housing,
00:02:57.740 Alberta's government will continue to build on our achievements and make more homes available in our province.
00:03:03.080 Budget 2024 invests $840 million more over three years to build new affordable housing,
00:03:09.720 bringing existing housing units online, support Indigenous housing projects,
00:03:13.900 and builds and upgrades to our seniors' lodges.
00:03:16.300 These projects will make a critical difference to Alberta families, fixed-income seniors,
00:03:21.580 and low-income Albertans who need a place to call home
00:03:24.140 and will result in over 5,000 additional affordable housing units becoming available across our province.
00:03:30.220 The Budget 2024 capital plan for housing will maximize our investment,
00:03:34.420 continuing to build on our partnerships with housing management bodies,
00:03:37.880 non-profits, and all other levels of government
00:03:40.540 to build new affordable housing in our communities across Alberta
00:03:43.560 and our commitment to Alberta's Stronger Foundation plan,
00:03:49.160 with our continued investment in affordable housing,
00:03:51.660 which is one of the key parts of Alberta's housing plan.
00:03:54.780 $405 million has been allocated for the Affordable Housing Partnership Program,
00:03:58.880 which supports innovative and sustainable housing projects alongside our partners.
00:04:03.380 Investments in these partnerships have already created almost 5,000 new units since 2019.
00:04:08.120 Budget 2024 also allocates $120 million in funding
00:04:12.260 for capital maintenance and renewal dollars,
00:04:14.480 an increase of $26 million over Budget 2023,
00:04:17.600 and it will ensure that our existing affordable housing stock can stay open.
00:04:21.840 Capital maintenance and renewal is a low-cost, high-impact way
00:04:25.440 that government can keep housing available for Albertans.
00:04:28.340 It is something that our partners have made clear is critical
00:04:30.580 and is already where we have significantly invested over the last year
00:04:34.320 in CMRA or CMR, capital maintenance and renewal savings,
00:04:37.940 which has brought thousands of more units back online
00:04:40.400 or protected thousands of units to stay online.
00:04:43.460 This confirms the need to continue to make investments
00:04:45.820 to preserve our existing housing stock
00:04:47.920 because of the significant impact it has.
00:04:50.660 The 2024 capital plan also includes $75 million
00:04:53.740 over three years for the Indigenous Housing Capital Program.
00:04:56.700 This program supports investments in Indigenous-led housing projects.
00:05:00.420 These projects encourage the public and private developers
00:05:03.540 to partner with Indigenous communities and governments
00:05:06.240 and organizations to build capacity
00:05:08.280 and create economic opportunities.
00:05:11.000 With our growing population of seniors,
00:05:13.100 Alberta's government is also making sure
00:05:14.580 that seniors' housing remains available
00:05:16.600 and supports communities where Albertans are happy to retire.
00:05:20.840 Budget 2024 invests almost $130 million in seniors' housing
00:05:24.660 to upgrade and modernize lodges across the province.
00:05:27.260 This funding will make sure that housing continues
00:05:29.720 to meet the needs of seniors today
00:05:31.280 and those communities remain sustainable for years to come.
00:05:35.340 Our government is also committed to increasing
00:05:37.080 the amount of affordable housing.
00:05:38.720 Budget 2024's $840 million investment
00:05:42.260 demonstrates Alberta's ambition.
00:05:44.700 Now, I recognize that the housing challenge
00:05:46.320 cannot be addressed by government alone.
00:05:48.840 Rapidly building market housing is critical
00:05:50.860 to meet the needs of Alberta
00:05:52.920 and to support our fast population growth.
00:05:55.360 I want to be clear.
00:05:57.000 Alberta's government will not go down the road to rent control.
00:06:00.700 We will not pursue disastrous policy
00:06:02.800 that would bring residential construction to a halt,
00:06:05.380 negatively impact low-income renters,
00:06:07.540 remove rentals from the market,
00:06:09.780 and ultimately make more people homeless.
00:06:12.220 Instead, Alberta's government is enabling our industry
00:06:14.380 to meet the growing needs for housing in our province
00:06:16.900 by building more homes faster.
00:06:19.380 Alberta continues to break records
00:06:20.760 for the numbers of homes under construction across the province.
00:06:23.280 In Calgary and Edmonton, as an example,
00:06:25.960 more purpose-built rentals are being built
00:06:28.340 than any time since statistics were kept.
00:06:31.080 These new units are coming onto the market each and every day.
00:06:34.400 Alberta's government will continue to enable,
00:06:36.080 not stifle, industry
00:06:37.020 to build the homes that our province desperately needs.
00:06:40.060 We will continue to take steps to reduce red tape
00:06:42.300 and ensure that our province can meet the growing demand
00:06:44.560 for housing that we see in Alberta today.
00:06:46.500 And we will continue to work closely with our partners
00:06:49.040 at all levels to increase our housing supply
00:06:52.080 and to keep Alberta affordable.
00:06:54.420 Stable housing isn't just a roof over someone's head.
00:06:57.940 It's a safe place to call home.
00:06:59.960 We need to be able to give people the chance
00:07:03.180 to secure employment, support their families,
00:07:05.240 and contribute to their communities.
00:07:07.220 Alberta's government will continue to invest significantly
00:07:09.440 in increasing the availability of housing in our province,
00:07:11.920 our $840 million investment in affordable housing,
00:07:16.020 and our focus on removing red tape.
00:07:17.940 We'll build more homes, we'll reduce barriers,
00:07:20.240 and make sure that we can meet the needs
00:07:21.760 of our rapidly growing province.
00:07:23.980 As we continue our work together with our partners,
00:07:26.060 we can find the right solutions
00:07:27.400 to meet the needs of Albertans seeking housing.
00:07:30.820 Because of our work together,
00:07:32.380 Alberta continues to lead the way in this country
00:07:34.320 when it comes to the expansion of both attainable
00:07:36.440 and affordable housing, with real solutions
00:07:38.580 that are having record-breaking results
00:07:40.460 and will benefit Albertans now and for decades to come.
00:07:43.620 Our government will continue to fight
00:07:45.100 to ensure Albertans have a place to build their lives,
00:07:47.820 a place to raise their families,
00:07:49.180 and most importantly, a place to call home.