Downtown Edmonton development squeezing out cheap housing

Edmonton's tight housing market is making it nearly impossible for some homeless people to find a place to live, say affordable housing advocates.

"There's about 200 I'm working with trying to find them housing," said Terry Zawalski at Operation Friendship Seniors Society.

Zawalski's list of clients has grown nearly 20 per cent in the last year as development pushes east into the inner city, squeezing out cheaper accommodations such as rooming houses.

Many of her clients can't even afford the affordable housing recently built by the YMCA just down the street.

"It's about $800 a month for a one-bedroom apartment," she said.

Her client list includes Jerry Chappel, 68, who lives on a monthly pension of $1,000 and cannot find housing he can afford.

Chappel lives in his 1982 Volvo which has cracked floorboards and duct tape holding plastic covers in place over the windows.

"I'm not sleeping on a park bench," he said. "I'd probably be dead if I was."