‘A whole world thing’: Calgary author Jessica Barrett explores housing crisis

Housing—it's one of the biggest crises of our time. Journalist Jessica Barrett explores the issue in her book, 'No Place Like Home.'

Like many Vancouverites, author Jessica Barrett left that city and moved to Calgary in search of affordable housing.

She’s now raising a family in a city with its own housing challenges.

“A housing crisis isn’t just a big-city thing. It’s a whole Canada thing. It’s a whole world thing if you really dig into it,” Barrett told CTV News.

Barrett’s questions about housing prompted her to visit cities around the world to research her new book, No Place Like Home: The Missing Key to Our Housing Crisis.

“You could make a very good argument that Vienna has the world’s best housing system,” Barrett said, citing its mix of municipally subsidized and co-op housing.

“Vienna’s just a really relaxed, chill place. It was amazing to visit a place where people just don’t really talk about housing,” she said.

Barrett also wrote about Calgary’s emotional debate over blanket rezoning—a policy city council now appears on the verge of overturning.

She favours making it possible to build more types of housing but says Calgary’s approach to the issue eroded public trust.

“Home is an emotional thing, and when you are threatening to change a neighbourhood, perhaps quite drastically, it feels very threatening to people on an existential basis.”