Large cities resort to car garages in homes to solve the housing crisis
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Can you live in a garage attached to a stranger's home? Or do you allow a stranger to move into your garage?
Many now find it hard to rent out their home to strangers. With the unprecedented rise in rental rates in major cities, from Berlin to Singapore and Stockholm, it is no longer easy for people to afford housing. Home buying has become impossible. Last year's research indicated that 40 percent of young people in England, for example, did not have the money to pay a down payment of 10 percent of the cheapest price in the area where they live.
The lack of low-cost housing in the United States has prompted many Americans to turn the garage into homes. Last year, for example, the Los Angeles municipality issued 4,171 licenses to convert a garage into a living room, compared to only 117 in 2016.
But renting out the garage will not only be an additional source of income for homeowners, but its supporters also see it as contributing to resolving the housing crisis in cities and reducing the number of homeless people.
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The state will need to build 180,000 homes a year by 2025 to keep up with population growth, but now it is building only 80,000 homes, according to a survey by the Housing Authority of California.
"Simple and unobtrusive solution"
"Is it time for humans to replace cars?" Asks Anne Brown, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon. Brown believes that this solution to the housing crisis will not require building more homes, and will not change the layout of the area.
More recently, homeowners have also used the cottage in the back garden, which is usually used to store tools, small mobile homes, and rent them to housing seekers. These secondary buildings are called "housing units attached to the house."
Cherie Tang, a YouTube blogger, posted a video showing her garage in Los Angeles, featuring a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a latrine. She says that the reason he is living in the garage is the low rental rate, paying monthly $ 950, while the average rent in the area you live up to two thousand dollars.
"I have enough space for myself and for the two villages, and the place is quiet and cheap and there is a separate entrance to my apartment," says Tang.
The view that rental of the garage may contribute to solve the crisis of low-cost housing shortage, as long as not inconsistent with the laws and regulations governing housing in the city.
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Ira Pilgrim also relies on the extra income he gets from renting his garage
Ira Pilgrim also relies on the extra income he gets from renting his garage. He says his life turned upside down after the death of his wife and partner at the Hollywood talent support company 10 years ago. His son, Henya, was only two and a half years old. He had to pay monthly installments.
Belgrade has moved the whole garage into a two-story house, despite the opposition of the municipality. Four years later, in violation of the law, one of his neighbors informed the authorities. Since then, he has been one of the most vocal advocates in Los Angeles for facilitating the licensing of a garage. The new law was passed in 2017, and the number of licenses in Los Angeles increased to take advantage of the garages.
He now runs a private company to provide advice to those who want to build residential units attached to the house in a manner that does not contradict the provisions of the laws.
"In Los Angeles, requests for condominium building permits have increased and home facilities have been converted to residential units by 1,000 per cent after the change of law," said Alex Comissar, Los Angeles mayor's press secretary.
Rising rents in the last two years in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, Canada, have led homeowners to take advantage of unutilized space in their homes by turning them into residential units.
In Vancouver, there has been an increase in demand for homes in back gardens. The backyard may range from 700 to 1,000 square feet, with a living room, a bedroom and a toilet. These houses overlook the narrow road network that permeates the houses, which is why they are called "narrow road houses". The Vancouver municipality says the last 10 years have seen the construction of more than 4,000 homes in the backyards.
"These houses offer a new housing option, without the need to build and redesign the city," said Graham Anderson, Urban Planning Officer at the municipality.
A survey conducted by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in 200 cities found that the cost of housing in 90 percent of these cities is not affordable to the average citizen, and these cities have relaxed some restrictions on building permits in response to increased demand for low-cost housing.
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In the past decade, Vancouver has seen a surge in housing units on the side streets of the city, in parallel to the surge in rents
Are these secondary housing units helping to shelter displaced persons?
The number of homeless in Los Angeles has risen 12 percent from last year, and the Los Angeles Service for the Homeless said that 60,000 people in the city were sleeping in the open in January.
For this purpose, a major charity donated $ 1 million to the city of Los Angeles last October to help its residents convert garages into housing units as part of a new pilot program to help homeless people.
"We've seen this as a great solution to eliminate homelessness in Los Angeles, by helping those who have no shelter to access housing units built by homeowners," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garchetti.
"Homeowners will help eliminate homelessness while at the same time they will benefit from fixed income from rental income and the high value of the home," he said.
"Some of my friends went to the garage and made the same house," says Brown.
To convert the garage into a residential unit, the law in Los Angeles requires two parking spaces for two cars in front of the house.
Donald Schopp, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, says the cost of converting the garage into an apartment is estimated at $ 80,000. After the restrictions on licensing were relaxed, homeowners in the state were able to transfer the garage in a safe and legal manner.
Transfer the experiment to other countries
It may be difficult to transfer the experience of Los Angeles and Vancouver to other cities. The transformation of the garage into a residential unit in the major cities where people rely on private transport may affect their future urban planning.
Vinnit Makiga, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, says parking requirements are a factor influencing urban planning, especially in cities where people do not rely on public transport, and may also increase house prices.
To encourage homeowners to take advantage of the buildings attached to their homes to accommodate people, and to facilitate the licensing of the conversion of these attached buildings into residential units and rent them, will contribute to improving the conditions in the cities.
Schopp also points to the advantage of increasing class diversity in residential areas by offering low-income people the opportunity to live in high-end areas, where they can not usually afford to live.
It may change the turnaround of the garage to a house, the way we plan cities, and help provide housing for all the people who live there.
"We were focusing on urban planning on roads and parking lots, and now priority has been given to improving people's quality of life," says Schopp.
You can read the original article on BBC Capital
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