CALGARY — Affordable housing advocates are hopeful a potential Calgary 2026 Olympic bid could help put a dent in the city’s shortfall. A draft hosting plan unveiled earlier this month by the bid corporation, Calgary 2026, envisions converting some 2,800 units of temporary Olympic accommodations for athletes, officials and media into long-term housing. The co-chair of the Community Housing Affordability Collective, an umbrella organization of private and not-for-profit players in the sector, said the city has a 15,000-unit affordable housing gap. The bid corporation’s plan mentions converting Olympic housing into a 200-unit seniors complex, urban Indigenous housing and student housing. “The best thing that can happen is that there is not only choice, but affordability for market housing, which reduces pressure on affordable housing, or in-need housing,” said Guy Huntingford, of Building Industry Land Development.

Source: National Post September 30, 2018 13:52 UTC