The New Canadian Dream
A Canadian family’s take on multigenerational living is gaining international attention thanks to its unique approach to combat the country’s housing crisis.
John and Kathleen Higgins are residents of Delta, BC. After years of living in their rancher-style home on a single-family lot, the couple decided it was time to build a new home.
But they weren’t just looking to construct a home for themselves; they also wanted this project to provide living space for their adult kids and their families, including Kathleen’s elderly mother.
So instead of building one giant home, they built four on one lot. The idea for construction began in 2016. John, who works as an architect for an engineering company, came up with various models and drafts for the homes. After consultations with the community and city, the project was completed in 2019.
Content creator Kirsten Dirksen, who focuses on unconventional and unique homes, recently featured the project in an online documentary.
Since being posted on January 5, the video has racked up nearly 900,000 views on YouTube, with many commenting about how the arrangement offers a solution to the housing crisis while keeping the family close.
So how exactly did the Higgins family house four generations on one lot in one of Canada’s priciest regions?
According to John and Kathleen’s 33-year-old son, James, it took a lot of planning, community consultation, and back-and-forth with City Council but it all came together just as the family hoped.
Before moving into the fourplex, James was living with his wife in a basement suite. It wasn’t an ideal situation for a growing family. But now he can have his own home, while also being steps away from his loved ones.
“We’ve been… pleased to have lived here and we’re happy to [share the idea] with as many people as we can to help them consider what I would say is a really unique approach to not having to assemble land with a large scale project, and being able to use property that is owned, or at least, it’s its own entity,” James told Daily Hive in an interview.
“And I think that’s appealing to people, so they’re not seeing the need to have this large development approach.”
Housing solution with family a “cherry on top”
The four homes come in the form of two duplexes, each with their own land title and separate mortgages.
Two of the homes are smaller at 830 sq ft and the other two are 1,150 sq ft.
“As a family dynamic, I think that’s definitely the cherry on top… because it’s been characterized as four generations, four lots,” said James. “That’s an ideal situation in a lot of respects and with our family dynamic it works quite well.”
He added that if he needs to help his parents or grandmother, he can easily do so.
Many families across Canada have been practicing these traditional aspects of multigenerational living for years.
According to the latest Canadian census from 2021, there were 442,000 multigenerational households in Canada.
In a 2022 report, the Vanier Institute of the Family highlighted that multigenerational living was more common among Indigenous and newcomer families, but the practice has also become more popular because of high housing costs.
A recent study by Western University and University of Toronto researchers found that multigenerational living in Canada was associated with lower odds of living in unaffordable housing.
“Multigenerational living may be a vehicle for grandparents to offer housing assistance in the form of co-residence to their adult children and grandchildren, or a system for family members to pool resources to be able to cover housing costs,” stated the study.
However, the researchers also noted that, in some situations, lack of privacy and living space were adverse effects of multigenerational living.
The Higgins family’s arrangement provides a solution to those issues.
“The context, though, is that it’s understood we are individual owners, collaborating and discussing each other’s needs,” said James.
“If needed, I am happy to be able to, let’s say, do some property management, especially for my parents and my grandmother, which is wonderful. But it doesn’t have to be that. It’s considered its own little fourplex for the family, but could certainly operate privately held without any relation.”
The Higgins’ fourplex provides a glimpse into the future of housing solutions for Metro Vancouver.
Last year, the BC government unveiled new measures to build small-scale, multi-unit housing faster and cheaper in the province, through new publicly available and free standardized designs.
At the time, BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the Standardized Housing Design Project set housing designs that are part of an effort to build density and address “outdated” zoning rules, which have blocked builds in the past. They include nine concepts total, with plans for duplex, triplex, quadplex, townhouse, and laneway home designs.
In 2023, the province also mandated large municipalities in BC to change zoning bylaws to allow gentle densification on single-family lots — generally up to four units per lot, and up to six units per lot near frequent public transit.
James says this is a step in the right direction but says legislation “can only go so far.”
He also hopes more incentives are put in place for builders to take on other densification approaches instead of opting for larger single-family homes, which have often become the “default.”
“It’s been a few years since we’ve finished [our family project]. I would just like to see it taken on by more people… I think seeing it in person or seeing it in video is probably a good step for builders, especially for the single-family neighbourhood context.”
With files from Kenneth Chan and Claire Fenton
DailyHive Article