Secondary suites: a methodological approach to estimate their prevalance within the city of Toronto

With the introduction of Bill 140 - Strong Communities Through Affordable Housing Act, one increasingly popular housing typology is secondary suites. However, their role within local housing markets has never been fully substantiated, numerically or functionally, Over the past decade, government agencies have employed a variety of techniques to estimate the number of secondary suites within local housing markets. However, due to a number of inherent limitations associated with available data sources and collection techniques, accurately estimated their prevalence is difficult because many secondary suites are not reported. As such, most data sources do not provide a complete estimate. In an effort to overcome these limitations, the following research paper has employed a methodological approach that combined MPAC data with visual surveys. The results of this approach will help provide a more accurate picture of the entire secondary suite rental market, identifying both reported and unreported units within Toronto.

Secondary suites: a methodological approach to estimate their prevalance within the city of Toronto

With the introduction of Bill 140 - Strong Communities Through Affordable Housing Act, one increasingly popular housing typology is secondary suites. However, their role within local housing markets has never been fully substantiated, numerically or functionally, Over the past decade, government agencies have employed a variety of techniques to estimate the number of secondary suites within local housing markets. However, due to a number of inherent limitations associated with available data sources and collection techniques, accurately estimated their prevalence is difficult because many secondary suites are not reported. As such, most data sources do not provide a complete estimate. In an effort to overcome these limitations, the following research paper has employed a methodological approach that combined MPAC data with visual surveys. The results of this approach will help provide a more accurate picture of the entire secondary suite rental market, identifying both reported and unreported units within Toronto.

Encounters with difference in the subdivided house: The case of secondary suites in Vancouver

Policies that encourage tenure mix as a strategy to help narrow socio-spatial distance between homeowner households and their renter counterparts have a long and controversial history in North American and European cities. Research that seeks to evaluate the merits of such policies has typically focused on the frequency of encounters between these two types of household, at the expense of the quality of this contact. Accessory apartments in subdivided houses (also known as secondary suites) provide a germane micro-scale environment to examine the content of interactions between homeowners and renters. Inspired by Gill Valentine’s work on ‘encounters with difference’ and using a series of interviews with secondary-suite homeowner-landlords and their tenants in the city of Vancouver, this article illustrates three types of encounters across tenure-based difference. These examples of conflictive, tolerant, and respectful encounter provide helpful material to reflect on the limitations of tenure mix as a macro-scale policy.