Brave New Home

Our city, much like so many others in North American right now, is struggling with homelessness, income precarity, and a generation that is seeing the possibility of home ownership slip from their grasp. A study shows that a third of households in the US pay more than 30% of their income just on rent and mortgages - but this was pre-pandemic, pre-supply chain disruptions, pre-double digit inflation.

Our obsession with single family dwellings needs to adapt. The 20th century's mass exodus into suburbia, fuelled by elitism and racism has eroded our sense of street-level community, increased social isolation, pushed us into car-dependency, and driven our tendency to conspicuous consumption as we struggle to fill our homes and “keep up with the Jones.”

Author Diana Lind proposes some possibilities available to us like Accessory Dwelling Units (or tiny homes), co-living arrangements, multi-generational housing and changing the zoning that often prevents any of this from happening. There is little talk of affordable housing here though. Gorgeously designed tiny homes that populate our social feeds are hardly an inexpensive alternative, and co-living feels more like up-cycled commune living for the affluent dot-com set looking to work remotely around the world.

This is a breezy tour through interesting housing alternatives without getting into the systemic issues that drive the lack of affordable housing. It submits to the unstoppable growth of suburbs and strip malls, and avoids the NIMBYism that often stalls any sort of possible progress. Maybe not the book's purpose, but I can't help wishing it poked at those issues a bit more.

With 70% of the world's population expected to live in cities by 2050, the affordability of housing and leading a sustainable lifestyle are becoming myths in any given metropolitan area.

Throughout the book, the author deals with aspects of the housing crisis in the United States and explores the fallacy of a policy that is being projected onto the population, which inevitably causes more difficulty for people of colour and immigrants.

The author presents many case studies that show how multigenerational housing and co-living are picking up the trend among realtors and neutralizing urban poverty in urban areas. This strategy should be consciously followed in any urban area from city planning to placemaking. Must read for policymakers, urban planners, architects, social scientists, etc