ADUsearch.ca home page, Jan 2022. ADUsearch.ca home page, Jan 2022.
Windsor

Tiny homes possible on over 29,000 Windsor properties

A Windsor-made resource created to track additional dwelling unit opportunities in the municipality will soon be available in 100 municipalities across the country thanks to new federal funding.

Through Family Services Windsor-Essex a team of local researchers will receive $2.2 million to expand their online tool for estimating the physical, financial, and social feasibility of additional dwelling units or ADUs on private properties.

Last April, the team received a $200,000 grant to create a website with the aim of showing property owners the possibility of creating more affordable housing units. Family Services Canada wanted the online tool to improve the housing stock and address the current housing crisis.

Researchers Sarah Cipkar and Frazier Fathers used a 430 sq. ft. tiny home model and current City of Windsor bylaws and zoning to determine over 29,000 lots in the city could accommodate an additional housing unit.

"If you think about the number of lots that can build ADUs and the waitlist for social housing, that’s quite a significant dent that we could do with detached units in people’s backyards and so we think that there are a lot of implications and we’re looking forward to diving into the results and also scaling it nationally to other cities,” said Cipkar.

The researchers will now take their model and apply it to the top 100 municipalities by population in the country with the aim of providing property owners, policymakers, and planners a tool to identify affordable housing opportunities.

“Knowing the social housing list is approximately 5,000 and growing if even fifteen per cent of residential properties added an additional unit that could alleviate a significant portion of our housing pressures,” said Executive Director of Family Services Windsor-Essex Joyce Zuk. “Especially if the correct incentives and supports were provided to make them affordable for vulnerable folks.”

The online tool, adusearch.ca, is live now and allows people to search properties in Windsor to determine if an ADU could be built on it.

The additional funding from the federal government will allow the team to expand the model to other municipalities.

“A long-term plan for a faster-growing Canadian economy must include housing that is affordable for working Canadians, especially young families, '' said Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk. “Innovative solutions like the one brought forward by Family Services Windsor-Essex and their partners is helping us understand how additional dwelling units can contribute to creating more affordable housing in our community and across the country.”

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