Housing Crunch

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Skyrocketing rental prices in Edmonton have the inner-city poor scrambling to find an affordable place to live and housing agencies are expecting a surge in applications from people coming into the city.

Linda Trottier, housing placement worker for the Boyle Street Co-op, said she is starting to detect a steady increase in the number of people coming to her center for help finding rental accommodations.

"The main problem I see right now is the wait. It's getting harder to find housing," she said.

She said there are more people looking for rentals now then she has seen in the three years she has worked at the center.

Trottier blames it on insufficient shelter allowances for welfare recipients and a lack of security deposits required by many landlords.

"The amount of money they're getting for rent is very low. It's just not meeting the cost of housing on the private market. It never did," she said.

The maximum shelter allowance for three people is $490 and the price of a three bedroom apartment is $520.

Trottier said the number of people she helps has jumped from 60 to 150 a month and she expects the number to go even higher in the coming months.

The Co-op housing service acts as a referral service for families and individuals having trouble finding rental homes.

Many of its clients are Native people coming to Edmonton from their northern reserves or settlements to find work.

Edmonton Inner City Society director Ann Harvey said she is also beginning to see an increase in renters being left out in the cold.

She's expecting a rash of applications from renters who do not fall under the Landlord Tenant Act and who have not been able to pay their rent in the last few months.

"We're beginning to get some indication this is happening. We just don't know to what extent yet," she said.

The Landlord Tenant Act requires a landlord to give a three month warning before an eviction notice is sent.

However, renters who live in boarding houses where kitchens are shared with other renters, do not fall under the act.

She expects boarding house tenants to be hit the hardest.

Harvey said there are "hundreds" of boarding houses in the inner city, many which are occupied by Natives living on social assistance.

"There are already cases where tenants are getting booted out, and they don't have any recourse. The law really has to be changed to protect them," she said.

Joe Blyan, Metis vice president of Zone 4, said Natives are having a difficult time already because they don't have anyone to vouch for them when they come into the city to live.

"It's going to be even more devastating to Native people. It's hard enough now because they don't have any references," he said.

Alberta Social Services Minister John Oldring announced this week his department will be considering raising housing allowances in response to the rising rental rates.

City landlords have raised the rental rates for the first time since 1983 and say the costs will become higher over the next few years because of the declining vacancy rate.