Housing Insecurity Is Now Driving Nearly 60% of Calls to YWCA Banff’s Crisis Line

A crisis line operated by YWCA Banff is receiving more than twice as many calls primarily concerning housing insecurity as calls concerning domestic and sexual violence.

According to its recently released annual report, staff answered 1,195 calls through the organization’s 24-hour crisis line during the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Of those, 712 calls, which is nearly 60%, identified housing insecurity as the primary concern.

The report does not identify what is driving the number of housing-related calls, but YWCA Banff CEO Ebony Rempel said an increase in awareness may be contributing to the rise.

“I think that there’s been a lot more attention drawn to the housing crisis,” she told Bow Valley Insider.

Rempel said framing housing insecurity as a broader community issue can help remove blame from individuals who are unable to secure housing.

“You could be camping, you could be living in your van or living outside and, in the summer months, again, that can kind of be invisible and isn’t as obvious,” she said, adding that people seeking help can be at different stages of housing insecurity.

YWCA Banff’s 2024-25 report recorded 962 crisis-line calls, including 472 primarily related to housing insecurity. That means housing-related calls increased by approximately 51% in one year, while overall calls rose by about 24%.

One recurring cause of housing insecurity is the Bow Valley’s reliance on employer-provided accommodation, according to YWCA Banff Director of Philanthropy Salina McNamara.

“A lot of folks here, their accommodation is often tied to their employment,” McNamara said.

“So let’s say you’re employed by someone, you were let go, you’ve got sometimes a day, not even, to get out, or a week to get out of your accommodation, and to find a place that is suitable, affordable and safe within that timeframe is really difficult.”

McNamara said some people temporarily become unhoused, while others end up staying in environments they would not otherwise choose because they need somewhere to sleep.

Calling the YWCA does not necessarily mean a person will immediately enter one of its housing programs.

Rempel said crisis-line staff first determine what kind of help the caller needs and whether another Bow Valley organization is better positioned to provide it.

The YWCA works with the Town of Banff, Canmore Community Housing, Bow Valley Regional Housing and the Homelessness Society of the Bow Valley to connect people with available services.

“We’re often one of, like, the first places that people call, and it’s our job to place them or refer them or support them with what is available,” Rempel said.

Housing providers are also working to make it easier for people to find help without having to contact each organization separately.

For those who enter the YWCA’s residential programs, the organization offers a continuum beginning with emergency shelter and extending through transitional and deeply affordable housing.

Its emergency shelter generally provides a free place to stay for several weeks. Transitional housing can support someone for up to one year, while residents in its deeply affordable units are charged no more than 30 per cent of their income.

During the last fiscal year, the YWCA provided 3,416 safe nights to 142 people experiencing housing insecurity, domestic violence, sexual violence or a combination of those concerns.

Of those residents, 84 identified housing insecurity as their primary concern and 59 identified domestic or sexual violence.

Eight people who were eligible to reside in Banff transitioned from the shelter into the YWCA’s affordable housing program.

The annual report notes that many of the organization’s shelter and housing programs have remained at capacity for years.

There is also a geographical gap in the services the organization can provide.

While someone from Canmore can access the YWCA’s emergency shelter and outreach support in Banff, they generally cannot remain in its transitional or affordable housing unless they meet Banff’s need-to-reside requirements.

Those requirements restrict who can live inside Banff National Park, generally requiring a person to work in the park or meet another eligible condition.

“If you’re coming from Canmore - let’s say you’ve experienced domestic violence, you come in through the shelter - we can only hold you for that shelter period,” McNamara said.

Beyond that, she said the YWCA must refer the person elsewhere for stable, longer-term housing.

That gap is one of the problems the organization hopes to address through Higher Ground, its planned $82.5-million housing and support development in Canmore.

As previously reported by Bow Valley Insider, the first phase is expected to include approximately 120 units of emergency, transitional and affordable housing. The full project could eventually provide as many as 350 units.

Higher Ground is designed so residents would not have to repeatedly move as their needs change. Instead, the type of housing and level of support could change around them while they remain in the same unit.

“What we find is when individuals are experiencing trauma, they’ve already been upended,” McNamara said. “For them to have to continually pick up and move themselves and their children can actually perpetuate that trauma and that feeling of instability.”

The first phase would also include counselling and programming areas, child-minding space, a café and commercial space intended to support residents and the surrounding community.

The project has received approximately $20.2 million from the Alberta government and a $10-million commitment from the Town of Canmore.

Rempel said the YWCA is now waiting for the transfer of provincial land near Palliser Trail to be completed and for a decision on a federal funding request of approximately $30 million. Additional money would still need to be raised through community donations.

If the federal request is approved, Rempel said the organization expects the first building could be completed in less than two years.

Until then, the YWCA’s latest numbers show housing insecurity remains the most commonly identified concern among callers.

“These are real individuals, real families,” McNamara said. “They deserve to be taken care of within their own community, in a good way.”