138 Business View - October 2015
Alberta Seniors Communities &
Housing Association
Representing the seniors housing industry of Alberta for 50 years
The Alberta Seniors Communities & Housing Associa-
tion (ASCHA) has just celebrated its 50th anniversary
of being the voice and champion of Alberta, Canada’s
seniors housing industry. ASCHA was founded in 1965,
when several seniors’ advocacy groups from different
parts of the province came together to discuss the se-
nior housing options in their communities. According
to Irene Martin-Lindsay, current Executive Director of
ASCHA, “the real driver was from the public housing
side; the formation of the Lodge Program, which were
then called ‘Homes for the Aged.’”
In 1959, the Province introduced the Homes for the
Aged Act, supporting the building of hundreds of low-
cost retirement homes across Alberta. “So the Prov-
ince started to build these lodges in partnership with
the municipalities who donated the land, and for many
years they split the deficits in two,” Martin-Lindsay con-
tinues. “The intent of lodges was to keep people out of
hospitals who just couldn’t be at home because they
couldn’t safely manage in their own homes.”
In 1994, all previous housing acts administered by
HEALTHCARE
