We know they used to call their hockey team the Saints, but are residents of St. Albert really “holier than thou?” You might get that impression after reading this letter from Chris and Karleena Perry, printed in the St. Albert Gazette.
The controversial submission argues against a Habitat for Humanity housing project in the city, suggesting…well, I’ll let the letter speak for itself. Among the “highlights”:
- “Our cost of living will increase as we will have to pay for low-income subsidies due to higher school fees or other taxes. We won’t feel comfortable taking our kids to activities like movie night in the park or other St. Albert events for fear that there will be unruly families.”
- “We don’t want a police presence at family outings. We don’t want to worry about drugs at elementary schools or gang fights at the high schools. We don’t want to worry about people speeding, possibly hitting our kids, or having to increase our police force. What we want is for St. Albert to remain as it is with very few low-income households, a place for families that work hard to live here.”
- “Like it or not, the children of St. Albert are high-standard children and have no place for low-income classmates.”
- “In Edmonton there are recreational activities at the YMCA; there are no subsidies for families in St. Albert, nor do we want to pay for it. Our family membership to Servus Place is $1,300 a year plus costs for Fountain Park and other activities, but we can afford it. Putting low-income families in this situation is not reasonable or fair — it would be like giving a new car to someone that can’t afford the gas. They would be better off with a bus pass.”
Many have dismissed this disturbing piece as satire. Others have suggested it’s nothing more than a belated April Fool’s joke. For their part, the authors of the letter are recanting the tone but not the message.
We’ll be talking about this letter throughout the morning on BT. What do you think? Does it upset you? Does it make you nervous? Do you agree with the Perrys? Should the Gazette have printed this letter in the first place? Let us know! Feel free to leave a comment here on my blog or send us an email.
rpj.
St. Albert must have acquired their certificate of entitlement from the Perrys. Income is not a gradient or an indication of how well children do. Compassion, empathy and giving back to the world to make it a better place happens when people, who no fault of their own OR a victim of circumstance end up where they do. They understand life! Drugs, gangs, and all those things the Perrys and the like believe happen are no respectors of persons with or without money. In fact, many are those are probably like mini Perrys who ‘believe’ they are entitled to more. Personally, this is the saddest statement coming from a community…. unfortunately, today it is a community in our neighbourhood. Just wait until Calgary gets hold of this ‘redneck’ situation…. oh yeah – we hit number one again!!!!
April 5th, 2010 at 5:31 amAdding my name to the list of people who are disgusted is easy. Am I surprised, no.. St Albert is a French Canadian based community and if you compare the content of this “letter” to the way that Quebec regards itself in relation to the rest of Canada, you will find uncanny similarities.
Whatever these people have said is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever had any compassion to help other people.
I don’t know what colour the sky is in their little world but I sure hope it doesn’t change and spoil their day………
April 5th, 2010 at 5:54 amI don’t think it’s fair to tarnish the entire city of St. Albert because of the comments of one couple. The point that was forgotten in all this, and that Mr. Perry has stated in his interviews since this was published, is that Habitat for Humanity was not just going to build four semi-detached houses like they did in North Ridge. The proposed development was for 58 units of row housing on a very small three acre parcel of land in an established single family home neighbourhood. They were partnering with Apollo Developments who was going to sell 43 units on the open market. The units had no basements and only a small storage shed attached in the back in a very tiny backyard. They were going to sell the units with a 20% balloon mortgage to be held by Habitat for Humanity to entice people into the market that could not afford them otherwise. Andy Banack, president of Apollo Developments and former Board Chair of Habitat for Humanity, told St. Albert City Council that he thought the two bedroom 864 sq ft row house would sell for between $200,000 and $250,000. There are many condos in Akinsdale of 1000 sq ft listed on the MLS for far less than that. The arguments were against the density, the lack of space and storage, the insufficient parking spaces (because it was too dense) and the proximity to existing homes which have yards that are ten feet shorter than normal because they were told they back onto a park. Mr. Perry realized that if this was approved in Akinsdale despite contravening many zoning bylaws, it would set a new standard for what would be built in the future.
April 5th, 2010 at 6:20 amdo the perry’s not know how much work goes into one of these habitat homes. these are hard working people who have to put in man hours with habitat to build these homes. maybe they should volunteer to see how much work goes into one of these.
April 5th, 2010 at 6:40 amwow i have been to st albert lots of times and seen things that the perrys believe dont exist. drugs are every where and i think it is time that the perrys took off their rose colored glasses!
I was horrified and shocked when I read this that persons have that attitude,it has made national,probabley international news,as a person living with a disability,under the poverty level(not by choice)I am decent,klaw abiding,educated,90% of persons with disabilties live below the standard poverty level Portland Oregon sets an amazing example allocating affordable housing everywhere(and guess what it has a very low crime rate)Social Services should check on this family about how there children are being raised…….Shocking. St.Albert is NOT Luxembourg!
April 5th, 2010 at 7:57 amRyan what these people don’t realize is that low income people in alberta are in the income bracket of $30,000.00 or less, which is most albertans. I personally know of familes in my community that have houses that were built by themselves and habitat the crime rate did not go up and these people are making a better life for themselves and their families. If the perry’s think that there community does not have drugs, gangs and low income families then they should grow up and realize that no community is free of these elements even the smallest community has these.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:03 amWhile we well and truly appreciate Chris & Karleena Perry’s comments concerning density and parking on the proposed Habitat/Apollo Project in Akinsdale, we by no means share the same feelings about the rest of their letter. One thing we do know for sure is that there’s much more to the story than the media or HfH is letting on.
For instance:
- Andy Banack, CEO of Apollo Developments was on the board of Habitat for Humanity when discussions were taking place concerning the development of 71 Arlington Drive. Only weeks prior to the start of the bidding process, Mr. Banack stepped down and placed his bid under his company name – Apollo Developments. Any guess as to who won the bid?
- Habitat/Apollo claim they need 58 units on a very small property, to make the project “financially viable”, yet only 2 duplexes were enough to be considered “financially viable” in the North Ridge subdivision?
- Only 14 2 story units are will be slated for Habitat residents. The rest will belong to Apollo Developments.
- Purchasers of the units owned by Apollo Developments will receive the same mortgage benefits as the Habitat residents, without having to qualify under Habitat’s rigid standards.
- Apollo Developments brag that they are giving back $1.3M to HfH, as their charitable duty. This is easy to do, when you get the land for FREE.
- The $840,000 charge for the property in question will be paid for with funds from provincial and municipal coffers.
- the 58 units are approximately 800+ square ft, 2 story units, without basements and back yards measuring approximately 4′x4′, with minimal parking for homeowners & visitors.
- City bylaws will have to be changed in order to meet Habitat/Apollo’s new style of building standards (i.e. building OUTSIDE the property envelope).
- the overcrowded units will loom over the homes of people who were told that the land directly behind them was slated for a school and that’s why their yards were 10 feet shorter and they paid more for the privilege.
- Complaints made to Habitat for Humanity’s head office were met with the comment that they (head office) had little or no control over the regional offices.
I could go on and on, but for those of you who believe that St. Albert is full of people like Chris and Karleena Perry, you probably didn’t get through 1/2 of this message…
Right about now, Mr. Nikolai must be in his glory, as the Perry letter takes some heat off of the HfH/Apollo project. Chances are that Mr. Nikolai not only saw the movie “Wag the Dog”, but he took notes, as well!
April 5th, 2010 at 8:36 amI can’t add anything more than what Fred said. It’s very unfortunate that the ignorance of the “Redneck Perry’s” have taken the focus away from the real issues with this project. The families that are to live in these homes deserve the same quality of home as everybody else in the community. It is outrageous what’s happening with this project. Wish the media would report the real issues.
April 5th, 2010 at 11:21 amHow about instead of talking about one person’s uninformed comments the media reports the real issue behind the story.
Local residents are fighting to save designated municipal school reserve land from being turned into a high density, direct control, low-income/affordable, row housing complex.
How would you feel if you bought your house next to a municipal school reserve, paid a premium for it, and then found out the city officials you voted, Apollo Homes, and HFH, for were trying to turn that space into a development like this?
There was no public consultation. There was no regard for the current bylaws in place to make room for future school sites or to protect the small amount of green space in this part of St. Albert. Reserve sites, according to the bylaws of St. Albert, must either be used as such or be reverted back to green space/parkland if they are not used as they were intended.
Look up the facts. The letter to the Gazette by this family only points the focus of this issue in the wrong direction.
It’s noteworthy that this family doesn’t actually live in the Akinsdale area and doesn’t appear to come even remotely close to the statements and efforts made by the people who live in Akinsdale.
Point the focus in the right direction or Apollo Homes and HFH will be able to push this through and maximize their returns based on this project’s proposed high density.
All at the expense of hard working families who are no different than you or I, but with values that aren’t in line with the family who’s uninformed letter created this uproar.
It will be very interesting to see how the Mayor and the City Council of St. Albert will fare in the upcoming civic election. I can only imagine that if this project gets pushed through as planned, the residents of Akinsdale who didn’t vote for anyone at all last election will be waiting in line to make sure that they exercise their democratic right this time.
It seems like an easy way to let their city council know how they really feel about a decision to turn municipal school reserve land into a high density row housing complex.
/endrant
April 5th, 2010 at 3:09 pmSad part is that the development, if it goes ahead as planned, will already be built or in mid construction prior to the election.
April 9th, 2010 at 7:40 amThere is STILL a chance to fight city council and HfH to bring decent affordable housing to 70 Arlington Drive.
HfH recently revamped their plans – by just a little bit. City council is prepared to ‘receive’ and ‘accept’ HfH’s revamped plans – without giving Akinsdale residents the dues they deserve. Our current Mayor has already informed some of his more impressionable potential candidates that they won’t have to deal with this sad situation, because it will all be over before the election.
All we’ve been asking for is, IF, as Mayor Crouse says – something must be built, then let it be 2 or 3 duplexes to run parallel with Arlington Drive that will FIT IN with the rest of the neighbourhood. Consider scattering the rest of these affordable homes throughout St. Albert, instead of creating something that doesn’t fit the area or the idea behind HfH.
Another thing to consider is the fact that condo/townhouse prices are FALLING throughout the city. So the question begged to be asked is who are these “affordable homes” meant to house, when they will cost more than the ones that are already built?
In any case, we’re still willing to fight for our little neighbourhood, even with the deck being stacked against us. Hopefully, others will stand up and finally see what kind of dirty underhanded situation we’ve had to deal with for all this time now.
September 4th, 2010 at 5:15 pm