'Our next pandemic': Calgary's housing fragility takes a heavy toll on mental health

WARNING: This story discusses suicide and contains distressing details.

The second time Ashley Laduranteay checked into Rockyview General Hospital's crisis stabilization unit, it was mostly for a warm, stable bed.

It was October, and she had just become homeless after facing foreclosure on her condo. She's been navigating depression and obsessive compulsive disorder for years, but she says losing her home was her breaking point.

"I was ready to end it all. I felt like I'd lost," said the 28-year-old administrative clerk who now sleeps on a relative's day bed. It was her second visit to the crisis unit in two months.

"You never really think about how important it is to have just a bed, a place to sleep, a place that's comfortable and warm and there's light and you're safe," she said. "It shouldn't be something we can take away."

Laduranteay reached out to CBC Calgary through our text messaging community after we asked for people's stories on housing. Her story helped flag a pattern — others are also finding that unstable housing, and worries about their housing, has a major toll on their mental health. It might even be the trigger for a crisis.

As the rental market gets tighter, that's ringing alarm bells for local experts across mental health and poverty sectors, who say the issue needs to be addressed and resourced now.

Last year, the Distress Centre's crisis line received 2,486 calls about shelter or housing. Mental health was a concern with 41 per cent of those calls, and suicide was a concern with 25 per cent of them.

For their 211 line, Mike Velthuis Kroeze, director of programs and performance with the centre, says they've seen a 17 per cent increase in calls or texts from 2021 about shelter or housing.

"It is unfortunately much more common than anyone would want to see," he said.

Elaine, who asked to be identified by her middle name, also texted CBC Calgary in late December, when she was going through a mental health crisis.

Months before, the 67-year-old was terminated from her job after taking an extended medical leave when she caught COVID-19.

Then her rental company said it's raising her rent by 25 per cent in April, for the apartment suite she's been living in for 13 years.

"That was the final straw that just tipped the scale for me. I just went, 'I can't do this anymore.'"