Want to ease Fredericton's housing shortage? Try single-room occupancy, committee says

Fredericton's affordable housing committee says the city should encourage the creation of more housing for single people needing a comfortable place to live but not a lot of space.

The committee is pushing for single-room occupancy building withrooms rented to single people who share amenities such as kitchens and washrooms.

"Not everybody can own a house and not everybody belongs in that lower end of the spectrum," said Marchell Coulombe, the co-chair of Fredericton's affordable housing committee.

"So we need to be intentional around the kind of housing that we want."

A form of housing

Coulombe said single-room occupancy buildings could be attractive to students,seniors and working people who aren't from the Fredericton area.

During the 1930s, '40s and '50s, Coulombe said, these types ofbuildings were common, especially for new arrivals in acommunity.

"They've been a form of housing that's existed for as long as humans have been working in cities," Coulombe said.

But rooming houses got a bad name after landlords started squishingtoo many people into poorly maintainedbuildings, and they were banned in the 1970s and '80s.

"In an attempt to keep people safe, those forms of housingkind of became illegal across Canada and the United States," she said.

Now she's asking the city to make single-room occupancy a priority to reduce Fredericton's current housing shortage. They hope to do this by legalizing single-room occupancy dwellings, including rooming houses.

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Rooming housesareillegal in Fredericton, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

In 2017, Fredericton council rejected a bylaw change that would have allowed12 people to stay in a rooming house at 244 and 246 Charlotte St. instead of the eight permitted under the zoning bylaw.

Some neighbours wrote to the city, saying the rooming house made the neighbourhood "scary" and was sometimes the scene of late-night shouting matches and police visits.

In March, CBC News requested rooming house fire data from all territorial and provincial fire officials. In New Brunswick, there wereat least 44 fires in the past five years, with no injuries or deaths.

What a 'growing city really needs'

Fredericton's affordable housing committee has been trying to bring single-room occupancy buildings above board to allow for more affordable housing in Fredericton.

Wayne Knorr, a spokesperson for the City of Fredericton, said council has asked staff to make this a priority in the new year after the new municipal plan is adopted.

An administrative report done by city staff also went to the city's development committee on Nov. 21, outlining a plan of action that includes gathering public input about single-room occupancy.