The production and consumption of intensified and converted dwelling units in an older-urban London neighbourhood

• Main Author: Jones, Andrew G
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1999
• Subjects: Area planning & development; Area Planning and Development; Geography
• ISBN: 0612402665; 9780612402669

Early in the 1990s, the Ontario's provincial (New Democratic Party) government legalized the creation of a secondary dwelling unit ‘as-of-right’ within a primary dwelling such as a single-detached home in an attempt to stimulate the private-market supply of affordable rental units. More recently, the provincial (Progressive Conservative) government repealed this ‘as-of-right’ re-empowered the municipal planners' regulation of the locations of affordable rental units. The current research question is why some owner-occupiers have intensified or converted their home, while others have not. Theoretical refinements were integrated into Brooks, Jones, and Phipps (1994) conceptual model which stated that a combination of economic, demographic, cultural, and governmental forces were motivating some owner-occupiers to either intensify or convert their homes, while another combination of the forces were inhibiting others. These theoretical forces were tested with both a comparative logistic regression analysis of paper-and-pencil survey data, as well as an innovative computerized content analysis of in-depth interview dialogue. The quantitative methodology deliberately replicated Brooks, Jones, and Phipps (1994) enabled a cross sample comparison of property-owners' motivations or inhibitions in London, Windsor, and Owen Sound. In addition, a renter paper-and-pencil survey concentrated on the consumption of unit, rather than production. In comparison, the qualitative computer analysis of the dialogue with previously-surveyed property-owner and renter households enabled a more individualized and associative explanation of theirs and ‘others’ motivations or inhibitions. Overall, the levels of intensification and conversion ranging upwards from one-in-six in London, to one-in-three in Windsor. The locally permissive land-use policy in these mature urban neighbourhoods benefited economically constrained existing property-owners, as well as first-time home buyers and households wanting to upgrade their housing or neighbourhood. It also benefited existing families that wanted to accommodate their young and grown children without having to move to a larger home elsewhere. Interesting though, some property-owners who potentially needed the income neither would convert a room for a boarder, nor could afford to construct a fully-separate intensified unit. Consequently, moderate numbers of households, including many nontraditional ones, are either choosing, or being coerced, to adapt their housing as a result of the economic and demographic realities of the 1990s.