New housing officer to be 'face and voice' of Calgary's housing strategy
Reid Hendry said his experience will prove helpful in his newly created role, to build more housing in the city.
Reid Hendry aims to help city meet housing goals in coming years
The City of Calgary's new chief housing officer is now on the job.
33-year-old Reid Hendry is a born and raised Calgarian who comes to the gig from the private sector. He's worked with Trico Residential and Highfield Land Management.
He said his past experience should prove helpful in this newly created position, as he is a known entity within the industry.
He added that his job is to work with all partners — including other governments, the private sector and non-profit groups — to get more housing built.
"What we are seeing is that these things are incremental. They're going to take time and in that, I think it's going to require a lot of trust to get that done," said Hendry.
The position was created last year by the city's chief operating officer, Stuart Dalgleish, to provide administrative leadership and focus toward implementing the housing strategy that was approved by city council in Sept. 2023.
That strategy includes dozens of actions that all aim to boost Calgary's housing supply by 2030.
"If I were to sum it up in one sentence, it's to be the face and voice for housing within the city of Calgary on behalf of all Calgarians," said Hendry.
Perhaps the most contentious element of the housing strategy so far has been city council's vote last year to upzone much of the established area of the city.
It allows more property owners to be able to build row houses and townhouses plus secondary suites on what had previously been single-family homes.
Hendry acknowledged the policy change has generated criticism but that not everyone is opposed to it, citing surveys that Calgarians want more housing types built.
He also said that upzoning alone won't resolve all of Calgary's housing needs as it's just one of 98 actions in the city's strategy.
"Rezoning is making a difference, but on an absolute basis, it's not solving the crisis. It's an incremental change. It's an incremental move forward and that's the big message I'd like to reinforce around that," said Hendry.
Calgary set a record last year for housing starts, but much of that growth happens in new communities on the city's outskirts.
Henry said he has "full confidence in capitalism" to keep getting houses built and that the city will focus its efforts toward creating greater density in older established areas.
An outspoken opponent of the rezoning policy and the way the city handled it is Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp.
She said the public needs to have more say on what's built on their street and next to their property.
Sharp added it won't be up to Hendry to rebuild trust with Calgarians who are unhappy with rezoning. She called that city council's job.
"If the chief housing officer thinks that he can built that trust, I would say I would like to see him go out and try to do that. I think it's important for bureaucrats to try and do that but trust is going to come from the people that are elected to be in these seats," said Sharp.
"It's not going to be an easy go until next October."
October is when Calgarians will vote in the next civic election.
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