{"id":77013,"date":"2024-07-23T14:02:45","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T20:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=77013"},"modified":"2024-07-23T14:02:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T20:02:45","slug":"invisible-victims-of-calgarys-housing-crisis-the-abandoned-pets-pet-owners-challenges-and-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/07\/23\/invisible-victims-of-calgarys-housing-crisis-the-abandoned-pets-pet-owners-challenges-and-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Invisible victims of Calgary’s housing crisis: The abandoned pets, pet owners\u2019 challenges and solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Precarious Situation<\/strong>: Sally Johnston, director of community services at Calgary Humane Society (CHS), poses in CHS on Thursday, June 6. The dog, Scrunkle, was rescued from the streets and underwent eye surgery, but still loves to interact with people. (Photo by Jiaqi Su\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Animals wait in separate cubed cages at the Calgary Humane Society. Their name cards, detailing their personalities and the heart-breaking reasons they’re there, hang on the outside. As you pass by, the sounds of cats meowing and dogs barking fill the air, hoping for a moment of connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are routinely over capacity,\u201d said Sally Johnston, director of community services at Calgary Humane Society.<\/p>\n

It took in 1,818 animals in 2023, with 155 surrenders due to a lack of pet-friendly housing.<\/p>\n

Johnston added that the reasons usually are pet owners couldn’t secure affordable pet-friendly rentals, landlords changed their policies or the owners had no home. The number of surrenders tends to spike during the colder months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe housing limitations are directly linked with pet relinquishment and surrender,” said Johnston. “Unfortunately, it’s a growing issue year over year.”<\/p>\n

Taskin Satter, a pet owner in Calgary, said she understands the challenges of finding affordable pet-friendly rentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t blame them. It’s very hard to find [affordable pet-friendly rentals],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The challenges Satter mentioned are reflected in the statistics. According to the RentFaster website, only 1,880 of the 4,542 available housing options in Calgary are pet-friendly. Only 99 pet-friendly housing options are under $1,500 and just 16 options are under $1,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wait list has doubled in the last years. In 2022, we used to have approximately 250 applications a month. We are now 500 plus applications a month for people applying for social housing,\u201d said George Habib, the vice president of Calgary Housing Company.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Finding home:<\/strong> Sami Ka holding her cat, Garfield, in her apartment in Calgary on Saturday, June 8, 2024. They live in a small one-bedroom unit that costs around $1500, with an additional $25 pet fee per month. Ka struggles to find a cheaper place for them. (Photo by Jiaqi Su\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt’s very hard to find [a pet-friendly housing], like a room-sharing is really hard to find because they always say that no pets,\u201d said Sami Ka, a cat owner in Calgary. She wants to move to a cheaper place with her cat.<\/p>\n

Sayeeba Islam, another pet owner in Calgary, said besides the rent, she has to pay a one-time pet fee of $500 and the monthly cost of her cat is around $300.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t matter how long you’re living there but $500 together it was too much for me at that time,\u201d said Islam. \u201cI can\u2019t live without my cats. I flew my cat from Toronto to here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone is empathetic to the plight of people abandoning pets due to the housing crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople shouldn’t take pets if they can’t take responsibility for them,\u201d said Tony Woo, a residential and commercial associate of Re\/Max Canada.<\/p>\n

Johnston shares her own experience. \u201cMy husband and I literally purchased a house, because we could not find pet-friendly accommodation for ourselves and our two large and very well-behaved dogs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said facing pet owners who don’t want to surrender their pets is the most challenging part of her job. She noted that the human-animal bond is vital, and pet ownership acan improve people’s overall quality of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don’t want to face that separation,\u201d said Johnston. \u201cOtherwise, we’re going to see more and more people living on the street with their pets, we don’t want people to have to make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Calgary Humane Society website<\/a> provides a pet and renters program and offers animals free behavioural support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event that they might be facing any sort of eviction as a result of their animal, they can just reach out to us,\u201d said Johnston.<\/p>\n

Similar help also can be found from the Calgary Housing Company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do partner with the SPCA (The Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals<\/a>), as well as a training that’s available for residents if they do have dogs,\u201d said Allison Leonhardt, communications advisor of Calgary Housing Company.<\/p>\n

Leonhardt adds that they also advertise to their resident newsletter about things like pet food banks and different resources with pets to support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize the positive impacts that pets have sometimes secret spaces to allow pets in any of our managed properties and units,\u201d said Habib.<\/p>\n

Calgary Housing Company offers several housing options, such as community housing, affordable housing, near market and rent assistance housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 90 per cent of our properties are pet-friendly,\u201d said Habib.<\/p>\n

He encourages people to look for more information on their website<\/a> to better support them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no difference between the type of papers you have, whether it’s from national or international so they’re all the same, all the same treatment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to have access to pet-friendly living accommodation and let us help and support with that to make sure everyone has their needs met.\u201d\u2014 Sally Johnston<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
Heartfelt Connection:<\/strong> Sally Johnston, director of community services at Calgary Humane Society (CHS), poses in the cat shelter of CHS on Thursday, June 6. As she gently pets the cat, named Mikey, Johnston expresses the deep comfort and connection she feels when interacting with these animals. (Photo by Jiaqi Su\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Animals wait separated in each cubed cage at the Calgary Humane Society. Their name cards, detailing their personalities and the heart-breaking reasons they’re there, hang on the outside. As you pass by, cats meow and dogs bark fill the air, hoping for a moment of connection. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":901,"featured_media":77016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Pet-friendly Rentals JS","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-77013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77013"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77362,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77013\/revisions\/77362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}