Calgary Herald: ‘Who can afford a $1,000 increase?’ Tenants’ group calls on justice minister to enact rent control

Members of a tenants’ rights group voiced their displeasure at Alberta’s lack of rent control on Wednesday, picketing in front of Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s constituency office in northeast Calgary.

About 10 members of Alberta ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) organized the small rally in front of Amery’s Calgary-Cross constituency office in a Marlborough strip mall, while also delivering a letter of demands to the MLA’s office that calls on the province to implement rent control and landlord licensing.

“Our demands are pretty simple; we think landlords specifically have to have a cap on increasing rents,” said Maggy Wlodarczyk, chair of ACORN’s Calgary branch.

“Some people have had their rents increase by hundreds or even a thousand dollars, which is not consistent with the cost of inflation or the cost of wages.”

The rally comes amid an ongoing housing crisis in Calgary. Last September, the city’s annual housing assessment revealed that one in five Calgary households were struggling to afford their shelter in 2021, equivalent to approximately 84,600 households — a number the city believes is almost certainly larger three years later.

The grim findings of that assessment led city council to pass a new housing strategy less than two weeks later, which included dozens of action items to help quell Calgary’s growing cost of housing.

But legislation to cap rent increases is within the province’s purview, which is why Wlodarczyk said ACORN is targeting its messaging to various UCP MLAs through a series of solidarity rallies across Alberta this month.

“We’ve had quite a few members who have had their rent increase to an amount they can’t afford because they’re either on disability assistance or are retired pensioners,” Wlodarczyk said. “Their cost of living has just been increased to an exorbitant amount. Some of them have ended up being homeless.”

A report last month from rental listing website Rentals.ca found that Calgary’s average price for a one-bedroom apartment had climbed to $1,751 monthly, while a two-bedroom suite was going for $2,157 a month, on average.

While other large cities in provinces that do have rent control still see higher rents than Calgary — such as Vancouver and Toronto — ACORN’s members at Wednesday’s rally said rent control would help slow Calgary’s surge in rent prices.

“We’re hoping to instil rent control before we get to the point where Vancouver, Toronto and cities like that are at,” Wlodarczyk said. “Sometimes, when these things get voted in, it’s too little, too late. That’s why we’re hoping this can happen sooner rather than later.”

The 2024 rental outlook from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., released in April, projected that Calgary’s average rental rates will approach Toronto’s current average rent by 2025, led by factors such as a surging population and scarcity of housing.

Another ACORN member picketing on Wednesday was Abi Martin, who said they feel fortunate to have only experienced a seven per cent annual rent increase at their highrise apartment in the Beltline.

But Martin (who uses they/them pronouns) said some of their friends aren’t as lucky, having recently received rent increases from their landlord ranging anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a month.

“Countless stories are coming out from people in my demographic,” Martin said, adding they’d like the province to take some accountability over rising housing costs.

“We need any protections we can get at this point. Who can afford a $1,000 increase?”

In response to a request for comment from Postmedia, Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon said Alberta’s government will not go down the “disastrous road” of pursuing rent control, arguing it would not work and only make more Albertans homeless.

The province is “laser focused” on building more affordable and attainable housing in response to a critical supply shortage, according to Nixon.

He added Alberta is leading the country in having the fewest regulations and fastest permit approval times to enable housing construction, noting that Alberta saw its busiest housing starts month on record in July, with construction underway on more than 4,350 new homes — including a 52 per cent increase in construction in Calgary compared to July 2023.