The Sylvan Lake Sustainable Housing Initiative made a presentation at the July 13th Sylvan Lake council meeting, where they presented a high-level overview of some of their demographics who are in the greatest need for affordable housing.

Executive Director of the Sylvan Lake Foundation Jeff Olsen says as our population ages the need for affordable senior housing will continue to increase, but he's also starting to see more needs in the younger demographics as well.

“There’s a lot of different needs in Sylvan Lake, and this study actually took a holistic approach so looking at both market and non-market housing. So we do see some increased needs for seniors, which we represent, but we also saw a need for a lot of people who are younger and just entering the housing market and maybe don’t have really high-paying jobs, so making sure there is a lot of multi-family housing available as well.”

Olsen says, while seniors continue to have one of the biggest needs for affordable housing options, they are not alone.

“A number of the recommendations look at issues that would support developers in building new market housing, whether that be an apartment complex, or duplexes, or individual homes, and at the same time, realizing that there were some people who market just isn’t an option, so how can organizations like ours support them.”

Council accepted their report as information, and Olsen says their next step is to engage with developers and other interested parties within Sylvan Lake, and while he acknowledges housing needs is a complicated and evolving issue, they will work to try and identify the greatest needs in the short, medium, and long term.

The Sylvan Lake Sustainable Housing Initiative was created to develop a sustainable housing strategy to identify housing needs and gaps within the community, with help from a 20 thousand grant donated by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation in 2018.

They work in collaboration with the housing agencies in Sylvan Lake, the Town of Sylvan Lake, as well as the Government of Alberta.