Dougal Forteath is no stranger to the challenges of providing affordable housing in the Bow Valley.
The newly minted managing director of Canmore Community Housing Authority held the same role with the Banff Housing Corporation until 2014 when he left that community and became the affordable housing coordinator for the City of Richmond.
Back in the Rocky Mountains, Forteath has been heading up the municipality’s housing corporation since February and, when asked about what direction his leadership at the publicly owned corporation would take, pointed to the board’s recently approved strategic priority document.
“It would simply be executing the strategic plan that is in place, which speaks to increasing the supply of affordable housing and delivering housing programs that meet the needs of Canmore’s workforce,” Forteath said.
Increasing the supply of affordable housing includes soon to be completed MacArthur Place – a 48-unit, purpose-built perpetually affordable (PAH) rental housing project. Phase one will be complete this summer and phase two later this year.
Forteath said planning for the development of lands that are designated for affordable housing also falls into that strategic priority, as well as preparing a long-term housing plan that supports the targets in the draft Municipal Development Plan.
“And then maybe most importantly, collaborating with the private sector to support the provision of affordable housing in the municipality,” he added.
At the March CCHC board meeting, Forteath presented a report on affordable home ownership models that examined Canmore’s housing affordability challenge using a median multiple benchmark while also looking at other affordable home ownership programs in North America.
The median multiple is a factor used by Demographia Group, according to Fortheath’s report, to measure housing affordability in urban centres. Demographia issues an annual report which found in 2015 that Metro Vancouver was the second most unaffordable market internationally for homeowner affordability. The median multiple divides the median house price for all housing types by the gross annual median income in an area.
Applied to Canmore, Forteath said home ownership runs from severely unaffordable (a median multiple of 5.1 and over) to moderately unaffordable (a median multiple of 3.1 to 4.0).
“If you are using that as a benchmark for affordability, it showed that single-family and what we identified as medium-density homes, were severely unaffordable and apartment style homes were moderately unaffordable,” he said.
The median purchase price in 2015 for a single family home in Canmore was $840,000, a duplex or townhouse was $590,000 and an apartment or condo unit $382,000. The median household income for all families in Canmore for 2013, $100,850, was used.
“According to this income ratio (a recommended measure by the World Bank), buyers in Canmore need to earn at least four times the median income to purchase a median housing unit,” states the report.
Models of home ownership were profiled in the report as well for the board, comparing CCHC’s program to those offered in Banff and by Calgary Attainable Homes, Habitat for Humanity Vancouver, Whistler Housing Authority, My Home: Toronto, Peel Region, Toronto Community Housing, Montreal Homeownership, Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority and Homeworks in Boulder, CO.
Best practices were identified out of the various models profiled. There are restrictions on resale, owner occupancy, restrictions on participation, financial literacy courses, down payment assistance, waitlists and the right of first refusal.
CCHC’s perpetually affordable housing model uses five of the seven – it does not require financial literacy courses or provide down payment assistance.
Forteath said the report was provided for the board as information and its purpose was to set a platform for further discussions on homeownership models.
“I think CCHC has constantly evaluated its programming in relation to what is out there and it would serve the interests of the community if we were always looking and examining our programs in relation to best practices,” he said.
