Jessica Murray currently lives in her friends’ garage in Fort Macleod. She moved from Lethbridge to the small town in southern Alberta in February of last year, hoping to get away from the noise of the city. She originally moved in with some friends. After several months, though, that situation fell apart.
For months after that, she lived in a fifth wheel on some other friends’ acreage. But then, as always happens in Alberta, the cold came. Fixing up the trailer so it was ready for winter would have cost hundreds of dollars, and she didn’t have the extra cash.
Murray searched for a place to live on her own, but found nothing. She is on long-term disability, so she can’t pick up more work to increase her salary. And she hasn’t been able to find a place to live within her budget.
“There are no rentals available, especially for single females with not a huge budget,” Murray tells TheRockies.Life of the housing situation in Fort Macleod.
The situation is no better in Lethbridge. To be able to pay rent at the current market rates, she’d need assistance from the Lethbridge Housing Authority’s Rent Supplement Program. The non-profit organization is already at capacity, though. Waiting lists are months long. And Murray’s community, as well as the team of medical professionals that help her through her disability, are all in Fort Macleod now.
So she lives in her friends’ garage.
Recently, Murray’s family doctor offered to advocate for her to have access to medically-assisted suicide. Her disability plays a part in this, but more than anything else, the fact that she doesn’t have a good place to live is at the top of the list. Her current living situation is not a forever solution. If she can’t get support with rent, there’s a good chance she could end up without a place to sleep at night.
Rising Rent Hits Alberta Towns
Murray is one of thousands of people across Alberta that are finding it next to impossible to find a place to live.
Fort Macleod and Lethbridge recently made the news for being two of the ten towns in Alberta with the biggest rent increases in the past year. Vulcan and Claresholm, Fort Macleod’s neighbours, also made the list.
There are several reasons for the exploding housing costs.
Alberta’s population has risen in recent years. Fort Macleod knows this all too well. The town’s population grew 4.2% in 2023, going from 3,493 to 3,637.
Construction of new houses hasn’t kept up with population growth. It’s a classic case of supply and demand – the supply of houses is too low, and the demand for housing is too high. This drives prices up.
This problem isn’t just happening in Alberta. Across Canada, the number of houses built hasn’t kept up with the number of people living in the country.
Housing Programs Lacking for Decades
The problem isn’t just due to recent population growth.
People need a place to live, and some people aren’t able to earn enough money to pay for their own housing. Nowadays, it’s up to individual people to pay for their own house, and if they can’t afford it they end up on the street.
But it wasn’t always like this. For many years, the federal government gave money to build affordable housing.
In 1992, then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government announced that they were going to cut the program. The government needed to save money, they said. And poor people suffered because of this.
After Mulroney’s decision, it became up to provinces to build affordable housing. And the provinces didn’t exactly jump on the idea of starting to foot the bill themselves.
The result is that we’re thirty years behind on building social housing.
Sharing Stories Sparks Government Action
Just because we’re far behind on building places that fit within the budget of people who don’t make a lot of money doesn’t mean that it’s too late to start.
Jessica Murray has tried to contact Chelsae Petrovic, her local MLA, to talk about her concerns around Fort Macleod’s lack of housing. So far, Petrovic has not responded to Murray.
Our officials are meant to represent us, the people who elected them. When enough people raise the same concern, these voices become hard to ignore. Murray is not the only person in Alberta who must worry about her housing, and as more people share their stories with each other and their government, the government will be forced to listen.
Murray is hopeful that sharing her story will put pressure on her government to respond to her.
