Calgary tenant advocacy group demands 2% cap on increases as rents soar

With her latest rent increase, Vanessa Badger has only $300 left in her monthly budget for her family of three to live on.

She learned in February that her rent will soon go up $200 — to $1,200 a month. She gets $1,500 a month from Alberta Works.

"The first thing that went through my head was, 'Where am I going to get my son's lunches?'" said Badger, who moved to Calgary four decades ago from Sturgeon Lake, Alta.

"The rent is increasing dramatically, and it's making it harder for us low-income people, for the seniors, for people on disability.… It's getting very hard, even on people's mental health."

It's part of why she joined ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). It's a nationwide union for low- and middle-income renters that has opened a new branch in Calgary. 

Over a dozen Calgarians from the group gathered at the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service office on Wednesday to deliver a letter to its director, demanding rent control from the province.

The agency is a quasi-judicial tribunal run by the province. It functions like a court to resolve landlord-tenant disputes.

Calling for a 2% rent cap, rental registry

ACORN wants the Alberta government to legislate a two-per-cent rent cap and a rental registry listing the price of every rental unit in the province. They also want all political parties to include rent control on their platforms ahead of the provincial election in May.

That's according to Maggy Wlodarczyk, another member of ACORN.

"We've seen in the last few years rental increases going up and homelessness going up in this city, and it is absolutely infuriating that we seem not to understand the connection there," said Wlodarczyk.

"I'm furious that this hasn't been addressed."

In Alberta, landlords can raise rent only once a year, and they must give three months notice before increasing the price, but there's no rent control policy.

Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador also don't have rent control policies.

In British Columbia, the maximum rent increase for this year is two per cent. In Ontario, it's capped at 2.5 per cent. Manitoba and Prince Edward Island both have zero per cent rent caps this year.

Short-term solution, long-term consequences

The rent control discussion emerges every time Alberta's market favours landlords, says Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Renters Association, which supports landlords. He's watched it cycle back and forth, every few years, for at least two decades.

The association generally opposes rent control. Baxter says while it's a quick fix to increased rents, it creates long-term unintended consequences.

Rent caps can discourage construction of new rental housing, he says. It also encourages people to stay in their units longer — especially if they're affordable — and can cause lower vacancy of affordable housing, which hits low-income people the hardest, says Baxter.

Baxter says under a rent control policy, landlords aren't able to keep up with increased costs and don't have the financial capacity to invest in the upkeep of properties.

"Therefore, the properties deteriorate," he said. "Tenants don't want to live, nor should they expect to live in substandard housing."

Rents have been increasing so much lately because now that it's a landlord's market, they're able to catch up on lost revenue from the last seven or eight years, said Baxter.

He said he doesn't know how long this will last, but "history generally shows that the land on the market favouring a landlord usually lasts maybe a couple or three years at the most, then it becomes a tenant market again for a number of years."

"The best alternative to rent control is to provide rent subsidies or a portable housing or rental allowance."

Rent control not on radar, says province

Community and Social Services Minister Jeremy Nixon said Wednesday the province knows rent prices are going up, but rent control is not on its radar.

"We believe this is a supply and demand challenge that we're facing in our community," Nixon said at a press conference on affordable housing.

Like Baxter, the minister says rent caps can have an immediate impact but create longer-term challenges, like making available housing more scarce.

"That's why we're focused right now on increasing the supply of affordable housing to make sure that we have options for Albertans to address the increasing rent prices."

Jonathan Parks, a candidate running for the Green Party of Alberta in Calgary-Buffalo, also showed up at the protest. He said renters need solutions now.

He says the supply issue can be mitigated by making sure there's enough funding to build housing for all Albertans.

"We need to support the renters first," said Parks. "We're calling on the UCP and the NDP to adapt this policy to protect renters across Alberta."