Alberta's boom is bad news for abused families

People who work with abused women say Alberta's booming economy is keeping families in violent homes because they don't have options for affordable housing.

Jan Reimer, the co-ordinator for the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, says the province is desperately short of low-cost transitional housing.

"As we work together at the YWCA and with all of the rest of our community partners to support women finding housing, we're constantly frustrated with our lack of success," said Reimer.

Reimer says two generous families came forward last year and donated the use of three houses for women and children.

That's not enough. Last year, 6,000 women and 5,000 children stayed in emergency shelters in Alberta. They can only stay for 21 days before they have to move into long-term transitional housing.

Reimer says the province needs 700 housing units but only has 111.

It's vital for abused women and children to have safe places to call home temporarily, says Sara, of Calgary. She and her children moved into a house rent-free through the YWCA program.

"[My children] were able to have a home in a lovely community [similar to] what we had come from and they weren't forced to live in some kind of substandard or inadequate housing. It was just one less thing to deal with," she said.

Calgary's housing prices passed a benchmark recently. The city's real estate board says the cost of a single-family dwelling in Calgary has surpassed the average price of a similar home in Toronto by about $5,000.

That means an average home costs about $363,000 in Calgary compared to $358,000 in Toronto.