Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for our housing, you must:
- Be under the Core Needs Income Threshold as set by the Government of Alberta
- Be capable of independent living
- Provide acceptable reference checks from previous landlords or service providers
- Attend appointments to view housing that is offered to you
Applications are not accepted from individuals currently living in affordable housing provided by another organization unless their unit is not meeting their needs in regards to permanency, bedroom count, accessibility, or safety.
Do you need emergency housing?
How to Apply
To apply for housing, you must submit your information through our application link to be placed onto our waitlist.
Steps to Apply:
- You’ll need to create an account on the application portal. Look for the link that says “Click here to register” and provide the required information, such as your name, email address, and password. If you have already done this step, scroll down to “Steps for Updating Your Application”.
- Log in to your account. Once you’ve created an account, log in using your registered email address and password and complete your profile.
- Fill out the application form with all the necessary details, such as personal information, income, references, and any other required documents.
Steps for Updating Your Application:
- You can update your application simply by logging into your account.
- If you have applied with a paper application and do not have an online profile, please go to ‘Click here to register’. You would have 3 options on your left hand side in blue. You can click on ‘I have a registration code and email’ or ‘I have a registration code and phone number’ or ‘I do not have a registration code’ whichever is applicable in your situation.
- If you have forgotten or do not know your registration code, call our office at 780-423-1339 and ask our staff member to assist you or you can email us at info@rightathomehousing.com. The staff member will ask you some questions to verify your identity. Once they get your information, you will be provided with your login details.
How does the waitlist work?
Our housing is available on a first come, first served basis for the type of unit for which you are eligible. We do not offer priority-based housing, as Right at Home operates on the assumption that all applicants are in relatively high housing need. Please note that due to our housing being a long-term service, our vacancy rate is low. Generally, a person will be on the waitlist for a minimum of one year, and it may take up to four years for an applicant to reach the top of the wait list.
Our employees review all applications and determine eligibility for specific housing units based on income, family size, and physical accessibility. Should you not be eligible for any of our housing at this time, you will receive a letter within 30 days indicating that your application has not been accepted. Eligible applicants will not be informed of their eligibility until a housing unit becomes available. If you are concerned about the status of your application, you can log into the portal and check your status. Your application will indicate that you are “Eligible” when it has been processed.
How to Stay on the Waitlist
The wait for housing will generally be a minimum of one year, and can take up to 4 years for an applicant to secure housing with Right at Home. It is mandatory to fill our housing application with updated information once a year, or your application will be removed from our database. Be sure to update your application when you are notified to do so, even if no details have changed.. We take this measure to ensure that we remain accurate in determining the best suited housing for your needs, and to have current contact information.
How to Accept an Offer
Please note that our housing is NEVER publicly advertised when a vacancy is available. We will always contact the next eligible applicant directly.
When a unit becomes available according to your eligibility, a Housing Manager will contact you to schedule an appointment to view the unit. If you fail to show up to two appointments to view our housing without notice, or refuse three consecutive offers for available housing units, you will be removed from our waitlist and must start the application process over if you wish to make yourself eligible for a future offer.
If you agree to the unit that is offered to you, your Housing Manager will book an appointment to go over a lease signing. Be prepared for the move-in process to take up to one month, as we do not always have immediate access to the unit.
FAQs
No, we offer long-term affordable housing only. There is a waitlist to get into our housing. Please call 2-1-1 or view resources for homelessness and other housing organizations in the Edmonton area.
It would be better if you have a phone number on your profile but if you cannot then please provide us a contact number for a person whom we can discuss your application with or leave a message for you to contact us. We reach out to offer housing by phone call. Email is used only to notify you when information is required during the application process.
You need to have an email address to use our online portal. We recommend you create an email, or use that of a social worker or other contact who is willing to receive email notifications on your behalf. However, you have an option to apply by submitting a paper application in person in our office if you do not have an email to register online.
While we can’t show you specific examples, many of the one-bedroom units will be similar to the example below:
The wait for housing will be a minimum of 1 year and can take up to 4 years. Our affordable housing is a long-term solution and many of our tenants will stay housed for multiple years. This means we have a low vacancy rate and an average of 300 applicants on our waitlist who are in need of housing.
Individuals or adult couples applying for housing will be eligible for bachelor or one-bedroom apartment units only.
Where there are two adults in the case of a caregiver responsible for another adult, you may be eligible for a two-bedroom apartment.
With families, eligibility for extra bedrooms is dependent on the ages and genders of the children in the household. We aim to provide the minimum number of bedrooms required while only allowing two children of the same gender, and within two years of age, to share one bedroom. For example: if a family consists of two adults and two sons, aged 3 and 5 years old, they will be eligible for a 2-bedroom unit. By this rule, if another family consists of two adults and one son and one daughter, they will be eligible for a 3-bedroom unit. We do not allow more than two household members to share a bedroom as a health and safety precaution. Extra bedrooms will not be granted where children are able to share a bedroom according to these standards.
All residents at Right at Home must be capable of independent living. This means that you can fulfill daily household needs such as cooking, eating, mobility, personal hygiene, laundry, shopping, cleaning, and have a means of communication to engage with your Housing Manager, or have supports in place to enable these activities.
Right at Home does have a small selection of barrier-free units or units with few stairs and elevator access for those with physical disabilities. We do not expediate applications based on ability, but will not rent wheelchair accessible units to those who do not require them.
No. All properties owned and managed by Right at Home Housing Society are designated as pet-free homes. It is recognized that while pets offer a benefit to mental well-being, Right at Home Housing Society is dedicated to providing supportive management for its buildings and connecting tenants with mental health resources as needed. Legal service animals will be an exception to the prohibition of pets on the premises, wherein the tenant has supplied a certificate of the animal’s legal status as a service animal, as well as paid in full a non-refundable $150 pet fee at the time of signing their lease.
Any tenants entering into lease agreements as of August 1, 2023 will be prohibited from smoking within their building or on balconies. Smoking must occur off the property premises or in designated smoking areas.
In consideration of property damage associated with increased moisture levels, the danger of overburdened electrical systems, and safety concerns related to marijuana production, marijuana plant growth is prohibited on all Right at Home properties.
Right at Home Housing Society is the result of a merger between the former organizations: The Edmonton Inner City Housing Society and Intermet Housing Society.
For 35 years, we developed buildings completely within the inner city of Edmonton, with a few properties in Millwoods. Most of our properties remain in these neighbourhoods, with a few along Fort Road (North Edmonton) and some further West (North Glenora).
You will not get to choose a preferred neighbourhood during the application process, as we cannot predict which units will become vacant at the time you are the next eligible applicant on the waitlist.
If you choose to reject an offer to move into a unit that you are eligible for, you will be placed back onto the waitlist for the next available unit according to your eligibility. We cannot guarantee a timeline when the next unit will become available.
If you reject three units that are offered to you, you will be removed from our waitlist and be asked to re-apply if you wish. This will place you back at the bottom of the waitlist.
We process applications in the order they are received. During periods of high volume, it may take several weeks for your initial application to be reviewed. We do not contact eligible applicants unless there is a unit available for your housing. If you applied online, you will receive confirmation that your application was submitted. You should receive notice if your application cannot be accepted within 30 days of applying. Please note our waitlist may take up to four years before you are offered housing. We cannot give a precise timeline of when housing will be available to you because it is dependent on your needs, the rate at which vacancies are available, and our ability to develop more housing. Ensure you are regularly updating your information to secure your spot on the waitlist.