My Presentation to Calgary City Council on the Need for Affordable Housing

Hello city council. My name is Phillip Meintzer, and I am here today as a current resident of Inglewood in Ward 9, but I grew up in Woodlands in Ward 13, and I’m here to speak in support of the housing strategy.

I would like to start by saying that I have no desire to purchase a home. But I feel forced in that direction as my only means to secure stable, long-term housing in this city. My wife and I are only considering buying as a way to escape a rental market where there is no limit on what can be charged for rent. I just want a secure and consistent place to live, and I’m trying to buy a home out of fear for the alternatives. I’m torn between two equally undesirable situations.

On the one hand, we are currently renting the main floor of a single-family home in Inglewood, but I live in a constant state of anxiety that my landlord is going to keep raising our rent or evict us when he eventually decides to sell the property — which he has already promised to do. Which means I feel pressured into purchasing a home against my will, because it somehow feels safer than renting in a city with zero rent control. But my wife and I can’t even find a house to buy in this city.

We make a combined $125K per year, and we have saved up a down payment of nearly $130K, and it’s still been impossible to purchase a home because the homes we have bid on have all sold for an average of $85K above the asking price. And it’s not like we are low balling our offers. The house we just bid for was listed at $600K, we bid $630K, and it sold for nearly $700K. We can’t keep up with this market.

Yes, we could buy a condo instead, but then we would have to take on monthly maintenance and/or home association fees on top of an already expensive mortgage, which feels like paying double. So, condos aren’t really that much more affordable.

Or, we could look to buy a home further from the centre of town, but public transit in Calgary is limited, and I don’t want to commit to a lifetime of sitting in traffic, risking my safety driving in terrible weather, or paying for gas. I currently bike to work, and I’m trying to find a home that will allow me to keep doing so.

But back to house hunting. Even if our offer to purchase a home had been accepted, it doesn’t make things that much better because suddenly we would now have $3000 in monthly mortgage payments to pay off for the next 25 years. Again, somehow taking on $3000 monthly payments feels like the safer option (in some perverse way) when my rent could literally double next year, and I would have to pay it or find another place to live. Either option feels like a form of servitude. You’re either at the mercy of a bank or a landlord. I wish we had public alternatives like those that exist elsewhere.

I know that my wife and I are in a position of immense privilege to even be considering buying a home, because that option isn’t available to many, and I worry for those who are worse off than we are (including friends and family of mine).

Housing isn’t an investment to me, it’s a place to live. Its use value as a home is more important to me than its exchange value as an asset. Calgary needs inner-city density, we need rent controls, we need to enable rapid redevelopment, and we need non-market housing options, and we need them quickly. I ask you to please support ALL the task force recommendations and the housing strategy.