The Okotoks Housing Needs Assessment draft report was presented to town council for information, highlighting the need for a larger variety of housing options.
Working with the Affordable Housing Task Force, the draft was presented by Urban Matters representatives Jodee Ng, housing analyst, and Lee Prevost, affordable housing development, at the July 15 regular council meeting.
“Over the remainder of the summer, we are taking the time to identify comparable communities that have some best practices to address the gaps that were found through the needs assessment here,” said Prevost.
He said the best practices will be going for community engagement across all levels to “test how some of those best practices might be impactful on the community, both positive and negative,” in September. The final recommendations will be presented to council in November for review, comments, and potential approval.
The final report will form the foundation for the development of strategies in the Town's Housing Strategy and Action Plan.
Mayor Bill Robertson called the work valuable for identifying issues and coming up with solutions to address those experience housing difficulties.
“Unfortunately, when it is a very affluent community it drives the price of housing up, and those people who are less affluent are then subjected to high rents and so on, that might not otherwise be there because of those high incomes on average,” he said, referencing Okotoks’ ranking as number two in the province for highest family income.
In addressing the needs of the households affected by difficulties, Coun. Florence Christophers stressed her desire to see more information to guide future action. She asked if there were ways to take the report further, in order to ensure there will be a demand for the homes being built.
Using the upcoming affordable housing project by Westwinds Communities and Rowan House Society as an example, Coun. Tanya Thorn said she was similarly interested in knowing how effective housing plans will be as they move forward.
Prevost said that Urban Matters could look into the average cost per unit of various build forms to help provide information for administration to target the most effective build types, but said the outcome would hopefully take care of itself through diversity of housing.
“What we are expecting is that the best practices we find are going to hit a whole bunch of tactics at the same time: things that can be done by administration, how to get the private sector involved in some of this, how to find land choices, how to partner with other developments that are going on—a whole variety of solutions,” said Prevost.
“Our hope is that it’s not just one type of build form that will solve the need for any one demographic but that there will be a variety of choices, and those choices may change over time based on the economy, based on a whole variety of things.”
Outlining the demographics of the community, current housing supply (rental and owner), emerging household needs, and growth projections, the report looked at the population considering four housing types as defined by Census Canada: couples with children, couples without children, lone-parent with children, and non-census (or individuals living alone or with roommates).
The report found that in 2015 the overall prevalence of households most likely to be experiencing low-income was 4.5 per cent, with the highest rates found in lone parent and non-census family households.
Of the housing offered in Okotoks, 77 per cent is single-detached dwellings, and in April of 2019, the report shows that there were 230 residential units for sale, and 90 per cent of those were single-detached.
“When we took a look at the rental side of the market, we found that there was a limited amount of purpose-built rentals in Okotoks, about 113 units, representing 10 per cent of total renter households in Okotoks,” said Ng.
Over the last 15 years, with the exception of 2003 and 2012, the report found a trend of low vacancy rates, ranging from 0.0 per cent to 3.7 per cent. Ng said that healthy targets are typically between three to five per cent.
Renter households were found to be 51 per cent more likely to experience one or more of the three housing challenges—adequacy, suitability or affordability—compared to owner households. However, like renter households, lone-parent households and non-census family owner households are the most vulnerable to affordability challenges.
“Nearly one in every two of renter households, 45 per cent, spend 30 per cent or more of their income on shelter costs in Okotoks, compared to 15 per cent of owner households who overspend,” said Ng.
They conducted an affordability analysis across all household types in order to understand what the affordability gap was and which housing types are unaffordable, she said. The analysis used the median household incomes against shelter costs—including utilities, internet, insurance, taxes, and fees—for the four household types found in Okotoks.
The report identified affordability gaps for lone-parent and non-census households ranging from $57 per month to $1,333, while no affordability gaps were identified for couple families with or without children.
Based on the Westwinds Communities’ affordable housing wait-list, there are 81 eligible households in need of non-market housing, representing the minimum amount of households who are looking for immediate housing, said Ng.
The most commonly requested type of units on the wait-list are single-detached and duplexes and seniors’ housing. Ng, however, clarified that the housing types requested reflect only the housing offered by Westwinds Communities.
“We understand that these are based on the market offerings that are currently available, and may not be the preferred housing option of the individuals on the wait-list,” she said.
Addressing the ecovillage component of the Homestead project, the report found that the project offers affordable housing rental and purchase options, including one and two bedroom suites. Based on the proposed rental and purchase prices the ecovillage is considered affordable across all household types earning median incomes, according to the report.
“There were no affordability gaps identified based on the proposed residential rental rates and purchasing prices of the ecovillage component in the Homestead project,” said Ng.
As the ecovillage rental units are purpose-built and therefore the rents are not expected to change based on the market, Ng said it was important to look at it from an affordability standpoint of “whether those units that are being offered are affordable from a 30 per cent or more income perspective.”
