Secondary Suites - A Guide For Local Governments
This guide was designed to help local governments develop and implement secondary suite programs. The guide highlights practices intended to promote affordability, stability, and quality in the housing stock as well as provide practical information for elected officials, planners, and others.
Secondary suites are a form of rental housing that is typically affordable, ground-oriented and market-based.
Suites can provide many benefits to homeowners, tenants and the community.
For homeowners, suites can be used as mortgage helpers. This is especially beneficial in urban areas where housing costs are high. Suites also allow people to age in place, and provide a sense of security to frail seniors or persons with a disability. As well, secondary suites allow families to tay together by providing a first home for an adult child or elderly relative. Secondary suites also provide many benefits to the tenant. Suites offer affordable rental housing that is generally ground-oriented and accessible to community amenities, such as transit, schools and shopping. In a planning sense, secondary suites create many opportunities at the community level. Suites provide low-impact densification while maintaining community character and enable families from a diversity of economic backgrounds to live in the same area. Suites also help to expand the stock of low cost rental housing without the use of government subsidies.
Although secondary suites provide tremendous benefits, the adoption of a secondary suite program does have its challenges. Introducing suites to a particular area can be met with community resistance as residents fear that suites will change the character of the neighbourhood. Issues also arise when residents feel that households with suites do not contribute fairly to utility billings or property taxes. Suite programs can also be difficult to monitor and enforce thus creating higher administrative costs and increased liability for local governments.
Although secondary suites present several challenges, many local governments throughout British Columbia have designed innovative strategies to realize a suites program. This guide presents eight case examples where local governments have implemented a secondary suite program: City of Abbotsford; City of Coquitlam; City of Kelowna; City of Nelson; City of New Westminster; City of North Vancouver; Resort Municipality of Whistler; and the Village of Anmore. Reflection on their experience provides a wealth of insights about the strengths, challenges, and transferability of different approaches.
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