Riise
May 25, 2009, 7:52 AM
Basement Suite Closures Raise Ire
City Moving Wrong Way On Housing Policy Critics Argue
May 24, 2009
Calgary Herald
Jason Markusoff
When the city inspector came to check the basement suite at 239 Erin Meadow Close S. E., she didn't check for leaky ceilings, unsafe windows or faulty wiring.
But she did find something that warranted shutting it down. She found kitchen cabinets, a countertop and a sink -- the telltale markings of a dwelling unit. And with no development permit granted for owner Deanna Oxtoby, that made it an illegal secondary suite.
The lack of safety concerns made no difference, nor did the roughly $30,000 of renovations Oxtoby said she did to upgrade the property. Rules were rules. Oxtoby had until last Dec. 1 to close it down.
"The inspector that came to look at it was like, 'Oh, my god, it's gorgeous. I can't believe I have to make you rip this out,' " Oxtoby recalled.
It's been said in studies and news reports that city hall turns a blind eye to the unchecked thousands of illegal secondary suites in Calgary. That's not quite true.
Inspectors go in when a neighbour complains about a suite, and if they find a secondary dwelling and no city permit, the owner is found in violation of the land-use bylaw and must remove the kitchen.
The city has shut down 2,104 "illegal" secondary suites because of bylaw non-compliance -- not safety codes of any sort -- since 2004, its own statistics show.
That amounts to at least one closed suite a day, every day, for the past five years. Those figures raise concern among housing advocates, landlords and experts that Calgary is being counterproductive in its efforts to improve housing affordability.
The numbers also struck an alderman who is a strong supporter of the city's 10-year strategy to end homelessness, which recommends the city actually create 2,000 "legal" suites in a decade.
"We're going in the opposite direction," said Ald. Joe Ceci. He knew the city had a policy of closing the suites after complaints.
"I'm surprised at the total number. I'm surprised there's that many people complaining. I thought it was getting better, that there was more of an acceptance of well-run secondary units throughout Calgary."
Ceci said he can't blame city staff for enforcing the bylaw, but officials could be more lenient to let homeowners make their illegal suites legal.
The city development and approvals branch has worked with Calgarians to make their suites comply with the land-use bylaw if possible, said Judy Lupton, manager of planning implementation.
"We know it's a form of accommodation and we certainly try to do what we can," she said. "They have to comply with the land-use bylaw. Those requirements and rules are put in there for a reason, and we have to enforce them."
Without knowing there's a secondary unit in a house, the city can't assess it properly for tax purposes. There are also liability issues and tenants' rights are in question in suites that legally don't exist.
City hall has widely touted its new rules that allow permits for secondary suites. But strict rules around zoning, lot width, parking space and maximum suite size have proven so restrictive that only four legal suites were created from the policy's introduction last June to the end of March, and only 18 Calgarians had applied.
Oxtoby applied to have her Erin Woods rental house classed as a duplex, but was told the lot's size disqualifies it.
She also cannot apply for the newly introduced grant program that offers homeowners up to $25,000 to build suites, since she doesn't live in that home.
"They're saying they're working to create more affordable housing," Oxtoby said. "What they're telling the public and what's happening are two completely different things."
The number of city-directed suite shutdowns had recent peaks in 2006 and 2007, just as rents were soaring and vacancies drying up during the now-bygone economic boom. Those years saw 465 and 450 suites closed, respectively.
They're most commonly closed in east Calgary's Ward 10. Ald. Andre Chabot said that's because there might be 10 times as many secondary suites in his area than others.
"When you have a multitude of the illegal secondary suites in one block, it takes away the use and enjoyment of others on the street," he said.
He's heard of duplexes illegally converted to eight-plexes, or people renting out units in basements and garages at the same time, often in horrible condition.
"If they were doing it right, they wouldn't have neighbours' complaints," Chabot said.
The city got a flood of calls from tenants and landlords about secondary-suite safety after January, when a fire killed three people in a Parkdale suite that lacked appropriate windows or smoke alarms.
In some cases, development inspectors got sent in instead of fire or safety inspectors, leading to a sudden spike in shutdown directions earlier this year, said John Purdy, the city's chief development control planner.
"There is a bit of a conundrum there with regard to who's representing the corporation, who's providing tacit approval for the use, to what lengths does an owner improve his property to meet the fire-exiting requirements before being advised that the legality of the suite is in question," Purdy acknowledged.
"Those are issues that were raised as a result specifically of the Parkdale fire."
Fire and health inspectors will order suites closed as well, but only in extreme situations that make a dwelling unsafe.
In the past 12 months, public health officials have ordered six unsanitary Calgary basement suites closed -- including, after the fire, that Parkdale suite, according to the Alberta Health Services website.
Secondary suites are widely regarded as among the most affordable sorts of housing.
The couple who moved into the basement of Fatima Valayati's Forest Lawn house were so poor they brought a mattress from the alley, and paid rent in tiny, occasional instalments.
"They'd been living on the edge since they moved in," Valayati said.
They had to move out by May 1, after the suite triggered a complaint, then a closure order.
Faced with a hefty bill to install a proper entrance to make the suite legal -- and also ineligible for city grants -- the upstairs tenants' rent doesn't pay enough to make up her mortgage and property taxes for the house.
"They don't care whether I'm losing my property or not," Valayati said.
The closure rate is not only unfair to low-income Calgarians, but wrong-headed for a city whose planners talk much about boosting density in existing neighbourhoods, said Dermot Baldwin of the Drop-In Centre homeless shelter.
"It's strictly about rules, without any consideration for reality in terms of quality of life for people who have to suff er the fact there was not adequate housing," he said.
Vancouver and Ontario cities have greatly relaxed rules to maximize the supply of basement or garage suites, said David Hulchanski, an urban studies professor at the University of Toronto.
He's heard of cities enforcing bylaws and closing suites, but not as many as Calgary has.
"That's quite astonishing, because you have to wonder where those people go, what happens to the homeowners who lose the income," Hulchanski said.
To Hillhurst resident Larry Martin, however, a proliferation of suites threatens to lower property values and make a neighbourhood unpleasant. He's railing against the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association's bid for exemptions to make legalizing suites easier there.
"I think they should enforce (the bylaw)," Martin said.
"There's the safety issue, but then there's the issue of quiet enjoyment of your property. And if someone is sliding someone in next door and it's taking up parking space like that, that's not right. That's invasive."
Shutting suites down for safety is reasonable, but there should be amnesty from the bylaw for landlords who aren't violating building or safety codes, said Robert Roach of the Canada West Foundation, a think-tank that has long advocated for more secondary suites as a housing solution.
"The more people who can rent a room in someone's house and if it's safe and practical, why not?" Roach said.
"Will it annoy some of the neighbours? Possibly, but I think that's a fair trade-off ."
As for that Erin Woods home, its basement suite is now occupied, Oxtoby said. Because of a loophole, there's nothing illegal about renting out an extra space that has no kitchen.
"The safety hazard goes way up now, because people are plugging who knows what into the bathroom, they're washing plates in the sink, so the sanitary concerns are there," Oxtoby said.
"The hazards are way worse. And the city knows, because they came and inspected."
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald (http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Basement+suite+closures+raise/1625518/story.html)
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When I worked for Rocky View I completed some research on other counties that were drafting, or had already adopted, policies on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Forget lagging behind Toronto and Vancouver, it is quite embarrassing that we have fallen behind some of the Municipal Districts in the Province. Can you believe that pretty soon it will probably be easier to build ADUs on acreages than in the suburbs in the Greater Calgary Area? ADUs are one of those stupidly simple solutions.
City Moving Wrong Way On Housing Policy Critics Argue
May 24, 2009
Calgary Herald
Jason Markusoff
When the city inspector came to check the basement suite at 239 Erin Meadow Close S. E., she didn't check for leaky ceilings, unsafe windows or faulty wiring.
But she did find something that warranted shutting it down. She found kitchen cabinets, a countertop and a sink -- the telltale markings of a dwelling unit. And with no development permit granted for owner Deanna Oxtoby, that made it an illegal secondary suite.
The lack of safety concerns made no difference, nor did the roughly $30,000 of renovations Oxtoby said she did to upgrade the property. Rules were rules. Oxtoby had until last Dec. 1 to close it down.
"The inspector that came to look at it was like, 'Oh, my god, it's gorgeous. I can't believe I have to make you rip this out,' " Oxtoby recalled.
It's been said in studies and news reports that city hall turns a blind eye to the unchecked thousands of illegal secondary suites in Calgary. That's not quite true.
Inspectors go in when a neighbour complains about a suite, and if they find a secondary dwelling and no city permit, the owner is found in violation of the land-use bylaw and must remove the kitchen.
The city has shut down 2,104 "illegal" secondary suites because of bylaw non-compliance -- not safety codes of any sort -- since 2004, its own statistics show.
That amounts to at least one closed suite a day, every day, for the past five years. Those figures raise concern among housing advocates, landlords and experts that Calgary is being counterproductive in its efforts to improve housing affordability.
The numbers also struck an alderman who is a strong supporter of the city's 10-year strategy to end homelessness, which recommends the city actually create 2,000 "legal" suites in a decade.
"We're going in the opposite direction," said Ald. Joe Ceci. He knew the city had a policy of closing the suites after complaints.
"I'm surprised at the total number. I'm surprised there's that many people complaining. I thought it was getting better, that there was more of an acceptance of well-run secondary units throughout Calgary."
Ceci said he can't blame city staff for enforcing the bylaw, but officials could be more lenient to let homeowners make their illegal suites legal.
The city development and approvals branch has worked with Calgarians to make their suites comply with the land-use bylaw if possible, said Judy Lupton, manager of planning implementation.
"We know it's a form of accommodation and we certainly try to do what we can," she said. "They have to comply with the land-use bylaw. Those requirements and rules are put in there for a reason, and we have to enforce them."
Without knowing there's a secondary unit in a house, the city can't assess it properly for tax purposes. There are also liability issues and tenants' rights are in question in suites that legally don't exist.
City hall has widely touted its new rules that allow permits for secondary suites. But strict rules around zoning, lot width, parking space and maximum suite size have proven so restrictive that only four legal suites were created from the policy's introduction last June to the end of March, and only 18 Calgarians had applied.
Oxtoby applied to have her Erin Woods rental house classed as a duplex, but was told the lot's size disqualifies it.
She also cannot apply for the newly introduced grant program that offers homeowners up to $25,000 to build suites, since she doesn't live in that home.
"They're saying they're working to create more affordable housing," Oxtoby said. "What they're telling the public and what's happening are two completely different things."
The number of city-directed suite shutdowns had recent peaks in 2006 and 2007, just as rents were soaring and vacancies drying up during the now-bygone economic boom. Those years saw 465 and 450 suites closed, respectively.
They're most commonly closed in east Calgary's Ward 10. Ald. Andre Chabot said that's because there might be 10 times as many secondary suites in his area than others.
"When you have a multitude of the illegal secondary suites in one block, it takes away the use and enjoyment of others on the street," he said.
He's heard of duplexes illegally converted to eight-plexes, or people renting out units in basements and garages at the same time, often in horrible condition.
"If they were doing it right, they wouldn't have neighbours' complaints," Chabot said.
The city got a flood of calls from tenants and landlords about secondary-suite safety after January, when a fire killed three people in a Parkdale suite that lacked appropriate windows or smoke alarms.
In some cases, development inspectors got sent in instead of fire or safety inspectors, leading to a sudden spike in shutdown directions earlier this year, said John Purdy, the city's chief development control planner.
"There is a bit of a conundrum there with regard to who's representing the corporation, who's providing tacit approval for the use, to what lengths does an owner improve his property to meet the fire-exiting requirements before being advised that the legality of the suite is in question," Purdy acknowledged.
"Those are issues that were raised as a result specifically of the Parkdale fire."
Fire and health inspectors will order suites closed as well, but only in extreme situations that make a dwelling unsafe.
In the past 12 months, public health officials have ordered six unsanitary Calgary basement suites closed -- including, after the fire, that Parkdale suite, according to the Alberta Health Services website.
Secondary suites are widely regarded as among the most affordable sorts of housing.
The couple who moved into the basement of Fatima Valayati's Forest Lawn house were so poor they brought a mattress from the alley, and paid rent in tiny, occasional instalments.
"They'd been living on the edge since they moved in," Valayati said.
They had to move out by May 1, after the suite triggered a complaint, then a closure order.
Faced with a hefty bill to install a proper entrance to make the suite legal -- and also ineligible for city grants -- the upstairs tenants' rent doesn't pay enough to make up her mortgage and property taxes for the house.
"They don't care whether I'm losing my property or not," Valayati said.
The closure rate is not only unfair to low-income Calgarians, but wrong-headed for a city whose planners talk much about boosting density in existing neighbourhoods, said Dermot Baldwin of the Drop-In Centre homeless shelter.
"It's strictly about rules, without any consideration for reality in terms of quality of life for people who have to suff er the fact there was not adequate housing," he said.
Vancouver and Ontario cities have greatly relaxed rules to maximize the supply of basement or garage suites, said David Hulchanski, an urban studies professor at the University of Toronto.
He's heard of cities enforcing bylaws and closing suites, but not as many as Calgary has.
"That's quite astonishing, because you have to wonder where those people go, what happens to the homeowners who lose the income," Hulchanski said.
To Hillhurst resident Larry Martin, however, a proliferation of suites threatens to lower property values and make a neighbourhood unpleasant. He's railing against the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Association's bid for exemptions to make legalizing suites easier there.
"I think they should enforce (the bylaw)," Martin said.
"There's the safety issue, but then there's the issue of quiet enjoyment of your property. And if someone is sliding someone in next door and it's taking up parking space like that, that's not right. That's invasive."
Shutting suites down for safety is reasonable, but there should be amnesty from the bylaw for landlords who aren't violating building or safety codes, said Robert Roach of the Canada West Foundation, a think-tank that has long advocated for more secondary suites as a housing solution.
"The more people who can rent a room in someone's house and if it's safe and practical, why not?" Roach said.
"Will it annoy some of the neighbours? Possibly, but I think that's a fair trade-off ."
As for that Erin Woods home, its basement suite is now occupied, Oxtoby said. Because of a loophole, there's nothing illegal about renting out an extra space that has no kitchen.
"The safety hazard goes way up now, because people are plugging who knows what into the bathroom, they're washing plates in the sink, so the sanitary concerns are there," Oxtoby said.
"The hazards are way worse. And the city knows, because they came and inspected."
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald (http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Basement+suite+closures+raise/1625518/story.html)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I worked for Rocky View I completed some research on other counties that were drafting, or had already adopted, policies on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Forget lagging behind Toronto and Vancouver, it is quite embarrassing that we have fallen behind some of the Municipal Districts in the Province. Can you believe that pretty soon it will probably be easier to build ADUs on acreages than in the suburbs in the Greater Calgary Area? ADUs are one of those stupidly simple solutions.