Calgary Housing is sharing a story of a former resident whose experience in affordable housing allowed him to reach his educational goals and grow his family.
“I’ve learned more about negotiation and conflict resolution in my time at Calgary Housing than over my entire career as a corporate lawyer.”
“I’ve learned more about negotiation and conflict resolution in my time at Calgary Housing than over my entire career as a corporate lawyer.”
Adam Rock’s journey towards becoming a corporate lawyer began long before he ever sat in a lecture hall. It began with stability in his life and in his finances, something affordable housing made possible during early years of his young adulthood.
Rock grew up in England as the eldest of four boys. When his parents immigrated to Canada in search of better opportunities for their children, Rock eventually followed, enrolling at the University of Calgary to study political science and philosophy.
When he first arrived, he lived with his parents in a makeshift bedroom in their basement.
“They didn’t have sufficient room to accommodate me,” he said. “In retrospect, I think we could have made it work, but that was not really part of the conversation culturally.”
He moved out soon after, renting his own place while balancing school, work, and a new marriage. His wife was also a student, completing an engineering degree. Together, they worked part time and tried to stay on top of their finances while remaining committed to their studies. Affordable housing made that balance a reality.
At that time Calgary Housing had an arrangement that you could work as a Tenant Liaison in exchange for housing, an arrangement no longer part of the Calgary Housing model.
The spirit of the arrangement was that Rock would be a mentor and a resource to other residents. The role placed him directly in the middle of a diverse community and quickly challenged the way he viewed himself and others.
“I came to the realization that I didn’t know anything about my neighbors,” he said. “I also came to the realization that the way I was conducting myself wasn’t working. I wasn’t getting results. It was crazy frustrating to not get the results I felt I was entitled to.”
Those early struggles became a turning point.
“I was forced to confront my differences, my privilege, forced to confront my own weaknesses,” he said. “I can be a pretty self-absorbed person. It doesn’t really work to adopt that attitude, not with friends, not with neighbors, not in a professional context.”
During their time at Calgary Housing, the couple welcomed not one, but two children into their family, a milestone Rock credits directly to the stability of affordable housing.
“I remember feeling gratitude because it just made it so much easier,” he said. “We probably wouldn’t have been in a position to start a family.”
“I remember feeling gratitude because it just made it so much easier,” he said. “We probably wouldn’t have been in a position to start a family.”
Being a young father while completing his degree wasn’t easy, but it was possible. With no financial support available from either side of the family, the stability of housing also filled a gap that would otherwise have left education out of reach.
Through daily interactions with young people in the community, in his position at Calgary Housing, Rock began to understand the uneven landscape of opportunity in a way he never had before.
“They didn’t know what university was, or it never even occurred to them that a university education would be within reach,” he recalled. “It wasn’t even part of the conversation.”
This realization reshaped how he saw himself and his own privilege.
“I was learning how to be a good neighbour,” Rock said. “I was learning how to negotiate, how to navigate cultural differences and differences of opinion without being combative and adversarial. None of which I felt well-equipped to do as a twenty-something-year-old.”
The lessons stayed with him, in law school in Toronto, in fatherhood, and now in his career as a corporate lawyer. He is the first in his family to graduate from post‑secondary education.
“Affordable housing allowed me to complete my undergraduate studies, attend law school, and start a family, while having a lovely place to live,”
“Affordable housing allowed me to complete my undergraduate studies, attend law school, and start a family, while having a lovely place to live,” Rock said.
