Comment: Single-family homes address ‘missing middle’

The “missing middle” is a term often used by politicians and industry stakeholders that refers to a cohort of people adversely affected by the ongoing housing crisis.

What defines the “missing middle”? A definition offered in a joint report by Evergreen and the Canadian Urban Institute identifies “… the ‘missing middle’ is used to describe the lack of available and affordable housing options for middle-income households, both in the ownership and private rental sectors.”

Housing options range the full spectrum of choices, including studio apartments, condominiums, multiplexes, and single homes in rental and ownership models tiered to income. Costs are contingent on location, size, land costs, finishes and specifications.

Earlier this month, Premier David Eby announced the Homes for People program to allow province-wide revisions to land use regulations on single-family lots to support four to six units per lot. This ‘inclusionary’ land use addresses the fact that most of the land in our built environment is designated for single-family homes to the ‘exclusion’ of other uses, and the current lot-by-lot rezonings are difficult and scarce, making lots that can be developed overvalued. Taking a broad-based application of this designation to the single-family lot levels land values and divides the most expensive component of housing costs — the land — across a higher number of potential homes.

Introducing four to six units to single-home lots is also referred to as “gentle densification” because the approach is to utilize an existing single home and divide it into multiple suites with the possible addition of a laneway home or garden suite, or the replacement of a single home with a variety of multiplex configurations within the scale and character of existing neighbourhoods. Existing housing forms already exist in many communities, including Kitsilano, Mt. Pleasant, South Vancouver and East Vancouver.

Many of these neighbourhoods are underpopulated, with large homes that now house “empty nesters” with more ‘house’ than is required. Creating gentle densification with the single-family lot allows aging residents to remain in their neighbourhood and to create affordable housing options for the people needed for services and staffing in our communities.

There have been concerns that “developers” would take advantage of this opportunity to raze whole blocks and rebuild with multiplexes, but this shift is not a large-scale development play. Rather it is an opportunity for long-term residents to free up the equity they have in their houses, upgrade and scale their homes to their needs, and ultimately create housing to accommodate family members or others in the community.

Jake Fry, principal of Smallworks, a local builder of more than 370 laneway homes, and co-founder of Small Housing BC, stated on HAVAN’s Measure Once, Cut Twice podcast that 85 per cent of his clients undertaking laneway homes and additional dwelling units are doing so to accommodate family members or others, allowing them to remain in the community.

Many details must be considered, including floor space limits, flexible setbacks and height limits, tenure, service/hydro capacities, reasonable development charges, parking, trades coordination and logistics during construction, and potential pre-approvals of typical designs/plans. Homebuilders Association Vancouver (HAVAN) cautions anyone undertaking such a project to work with certified professionals with experience in these types of projects.

In the end, we need to be open-minded and allow ‘gentle densification’ to unfold in the same organic and paced manner that laneways homes have and create more opportunities for our “missing middle.”

Ron Rapp is CEO of Homebuilders Association Vancouver. He can be reached at ron@havan.ca and Twitter@HAVAN_CEO.

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