An email encouraging members of the Canadian Armed Forces to consider contacting Habitat for Humanity if they can't find affordable housing is casting a spotlight on a growing challenge facing many military personnel and their families.
The email was sent by a senior officer at 19 Wing Comox to other members at the Royal Canadian Air Force base on northern Vancouver Island, which is home to the military's search-and-rescue school as well as several squadrons of aircraft.
"To the best of our knowledge," she added, "this has not been an option presented or explored by CAF members in other regions of the country." Online forums are rife with Armed Forces members discussing the current housing crunch, with some on the verge of moving desperate for advice on how to find affordable accommodation in markets where even rental prices are sky high.
"It's a lot of stress and a lot of pressure both on the personnel themselves and on the realtors," said Andolfatto, who has worked with military families for 34 years. "Anyone who isn't ranked as an officer would find it a struggle." While unable to say for sure whether any of the 39 local Habitat for Humanity homes built since 2004 have gone to military members, West said he was not aware of any such arrangements to date.
Many bases have military housing. But even as internal Defence Department assessments have repeatedly asserted since 2017 that at least 5,000 more units are needed to meet the military's growing requirements, the number of homes owned by government has steadily decreased for years.
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