Jennifer Odynski wants to work in the city she calls home.

Instead, the 22-year-old routinely drives from Edmonton to Fort McMurray for six-day rotations in a tool crib that supplies parts and machinery for oilsands workers on round-the-clock shifts.

There, her expertly applied makeup and great-looking faux nails are evidence of her recent training as an esthetician.

But in Edmonton, working as an esthetician nets little more than minimum wage.

That's not enough to pay the mortgage on the one-bedroom Edmonton condo Odynski took possession of Sept. 30. She paid $192,000 for a place to call her own and can't believe her good fortune.

While Odynski never wanted to be a migrant worker, she was determined to be a homeowner. "I'm setting myself up for the future."

Odynski's story shows how entry-level housing in Alberta's two largest cities has been redefined as high-rise condominiums, says Rick Geddes, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity in Calgary. "The spread between haves and have-nots in Calgary is growing very rapidly and if you really want to take a simple look at it, the people that have home ownership right now are the haves. Those people that do not have home ownership are the have-nots."

It's an economic divide one could miss if focused solely on bullish investment reports or even RBC's most recent housing affordability index - which paints the Alberta market in a mostly favourable light compared with less-affordable markets in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

According to that index, affordable markets are those where mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes tally no more than 32 per cent of pre-tax income.

RBC's second-quarter figures peg Alberta's detached bungalow market at 33 per cent (34.6 per cent for Calgary), with the standard two-storey at 36.7 (36.2). The index looks even better for townhouses at 24.3 per cent of pre-tax income (26.2 per cent for the Calgary market). Condos are at 21.5 (21.2.).

So what's up? Qualifying incomes, for one. Overall, the RBC report says second-quarter housing prices in Alberta increased "roughly 30 per cent year-over-year in all classes of homes."

At the same time, wage growth is not keeping pace with housing prices and in Alberta's two largest cities, "the rapid acceleration in prices has driven up qualifying income levels by roughly 30 per cent year-over-year in each of the previous two quarters."

All of which makes it harder for low- and modest-income wage earners to buy homes, says Geddes, adding the situation has reached crisis proportions.

Look close enough and the RBC report expresses the crisis in plain dollars and cents. The qualifying income for a detached bungalow in Alberta hit $65,247 in the second quarter. It took an income of $72,677 to qualify for a two-storey, $48,047 for a townhouse and $42,587 for a condo.

Habitat is responding the only way it can - by stepping up its own efforts to help more families.

"We've just gone through a strategic planning process and our goal is to double our capacity within three years," says Geddes. That's 30 homes a year - and it's "just a drop in the bucket."

Those on the frontlines of Edmonton's affordable housing market note the same concerns. Jim Gurnett, executive director of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, says his agency works with about 8,000 newcomers a year.

Although set up to offer assistance with everything from language training to career development and community services, frontline staff currently spend 35 per cent of their time on housing-related issues. In a robust economy with rental vacancies hovering around zero per cent, Gurnett says, families are especially hard-pressed to find housing "we could call safe and healthy."

The price of homelessness and a lack of affordable housing includes the cost of shelters, health care and policing, adds Brian O'Leary, chair of the Calgary Homeless Foundation and director for the Calgary Community Land Trust.

In an economy that demands service-level jobs, "maintaining homelessness is more expensive than putting your money into and providing affordable housing for the working poor," O'Leary says.

What to do about the crisis headlines the Alberta Housing Coalition's (AHC) conference planned for Nov. 9-10 in Edmonton, says AHC executive director Matthew MacNeil.

The conference aims to lay the framework of a comprehensive housing strategy that will build strategic partnerships, provide guidance to smaller communities just starting to grapple with the issues and build what MacNeil terms "public will" for real solutions.

Politicians "will rarely support anything they don't feel has public support," notes MacNeil.

Some of those solutions can come from best practices already in use by organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Wood Buffalo Housing and Community Development Corp. in Fort McMurray and Calgary's new HomeCo, a non-profit company that provides detailed expertise to charities and community groups that want to develop affordable housing projects.

Like the others, MacNeil refuses to lay blame for a lack of affordable housing at the feet of developers or landlords, saying the real hurdle is affordable, suitable land.

Here again, best practices used elsewhere set workable guidelines for real success.

A partner with Burnet Duckworth & Palmer, O'Leary says it's time federal tax breaks given to landowners who donate land for wildlife habitat in perpetuity are also offered to those who donate property for affordable housing.

This is the case in the U.S., he says, where "they are getting a lot more land donated by corporations."

Similarly, it's time federal, provincial and municipal governments required community development plans that include affordable housing, says MacNeil.

Given current prosperity, "we are going to be an economic magnet for people to come here and try to make a new beginning," he adds.

"As a community we have a responsibility to make sure that everyone in this community has the right to safe, affordable housing."

And there's little time to waste. In Calgary alone, approximately 19,000 households could be at risk for homelessness by 2008, according to an estimate released in 2005, well before the current market boom.

Figures like that trouble Gurnett, who maintains market incentives could have helped offset the current crisis had Alberta been building affordable housing over the last 10 years.

While migrant workers who live one place and work in another may provide short-term labour relief, it's no way to build communities, insists Gurnett, who expects workers will come to Alberta - but not bring their families, nor plan to stay.

With one brother in Edmonton and her parents and a younger sister in Calgary, Jennifer Odynski knows Alberta is home.

Plugged into the Edmonton market via the Internet, she also knows the market value of her condo is still rising - and that she's building equity with every mortgage payment.

It doesn't amount to much, yet. But given her age and the housing crunch facing so many Albertans, it's also a lot. "I know I'm lucky."

(Joy Gregory can be reached at joy@businessedge.ca)