Mayors in Kitchener and Guelph are proposing building fourplexes on single residential lots as a way to deal with the local housing crisis. One Waterloo professor says this will help, but he'd like to see municipalities stipulate at least one of the four units must be affordable.Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic says introducing fourplexes - four residential units on one lot - would help address the housing crisis the city is in.
"This is something that a number of cities across Canada have started to do and we're amongst the first to get there," Vrbanovic told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's"It's consistent with our missing-middle and affordable housing study that came to council back in April 2023 and really is part of our city's efforts of taking steps to address some of the challenges through our Housing for All strategy.
"I resoundingly support this move and I'm really happy to see Kitchener and Guelph boldly and bravely moving forward with it. It checks so many boxes," Parker told CBC News. "This is a new opportunity that we should not only be thinking about encouraging developers, but we should think about facilitating homeowners to grow in place on their parcels."
He says there are lots of good reasons to get rid of the idea that one property is for one residential unit and for municipalities to adopt zoning that can adapt to changing circumstances and priorities. "There's different ways of defining affordable housing but even taking a looser definition of affordable housing, that would help to ensure that some of that housing that is being added, some of that supply that is being added, it would help shape that to directly meet some of the housing needs," Doucet said.