Building Forward: Housing for Vulnerable Populations Blog 9 – 2 -3 min. readDecember 13, 2023 | By: Iana Lanceta In respect to housing, vulnerable populations can experience precarious living situations and struggle to find affordable options. Low-income families, the elderly, individuals with lower levels of education, racialized groups, Indigenous people, and newcomers represent vulnerable populations who may experience inequities in many facets of life. As the weather becomes colder, ensuring vulnerable populations are comfortably and securely housed becomes even more essential. Inflation is one major contributor to the housing issue, and the inflation rate has risen significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, the impact of rising prices is not felt equally among demographic groups, and vulnerable populations in the bottom income bracket spend a higher share of their budgets on necessities (such as food and shelter) compared to higher income individuals. Social housing projects, like the...
Untangling the Red Tape: The Housing Crisis and Construction Delays Blog 8 – 4-5 min.readNovember 15, 2023 | By: Iana Lanceta In a time of soaring housing costs, there is a hidden culprit that often exacerbates the financial burden on prospective homeowners: red tape. The combination of municipal charges and complicated bureaucratic processes associated with new development create an additional layer of expenses while hindering housing supply. Although increased affordable housing is on the agenda of most governments, existing development regulations prevent political leaders from reaching this goal. This article will look at studies that break down the additional costs that homeowners face. According to a 2022 Ontario study conducted by Building Industry and Land Development (BILD) and Altus Group, municipal approval timeframes for new housing have significantly increased since 2020. These delays prove to be more than just annoying inconveniences and have added approximately $50,0000 to the cost of...
Are ADUs Affordable to Build? Blog 4 – 5 min.readJune 15, 2023 | By: Frazier Fathers Unlike most other forms of development, ADUs must be financed by an existing property owner. There are currently no mechanisms that would allow a developer, for example, to build ADUs in someone’s backyard and then sell or rent them for profit as they would not own the land the ADU was built on. This leads to the question, can the “average homeowner” afford to build an ADU? One of the biggest barriers is getting financing, and there are two primary thresholds a homeowner needs to reach. First is whether they have sufficient equity or cash on hand to build an ADU. A property owner will need to refinance their existing property to pay the $150,000+ construction cost of the ADU. An important point is that most financial institutions will only allow up to 80%...
What’s Up with ADU Bylaws? Blog 2 – 5 min.read April 14, 2023 | By: Frazier Fathers Where an additional dwelling unit (ADU) can be built is a complicated matter that is most often driven by local bylaws. Provincial policy provides the foundation for these bylaws based on zoning and building code requirements and regulations but, it’s often up to the specific municipality to determine if ADUs are a possible and viable form of housing in their community. ADUSearch attempts to determine where detached ADUs can be built at the lot level without significant barrier and restriction (i.e. dark green on our categorization) based on local bylaws. So, we dig into these bylaws and attempt to determine all of the potential paths and gateways that have to be met for a property owner to build a detached ADU. This process was conceptualized in the form of a flowchart. For some...
How Does ADUSearch Work? The Core Model Blog 1 – 2 min. read March 31, 2023 | By: Frazier Fathers ADUSearch aims to help its users discover the potential in their own backyard. In particular, this digital tool uses a variety of spatial data and models based on existing and hypothetical bylaws to assess ADU suitability at a lot-by-lot and neighbourhood level. ADUSearch was originally funded by Stage 1 of the CMHC Housing Supply Challenge and incubated at Family Services Windsor-Essex but continues to grow as a project. The process to create the maps that users see today was two-fold. First, the policy team gathered the bylaw inputs that inform the conditions and restrictions that allow an additional dwelling unit (ADU) to be built. These inputs were organized in a flowchart format and validated both internally and externally. Next, the policy files were sent to the GIS team to be...
