Some Characteristics and Regulatory Aspects of Canadian Housing

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Technical Note (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1962-11-01

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Some Characteristics and Regulatory Aspects of Canadian Housing

Dickens, H. B.

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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

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PREPARED BY H. B. Dickens

PREPARED FOR General Information

CHECKED BY APPROVED BY N. B. H.

DATE November 1962

SUBJECT _{SOME CHARACTERISTICS AND REGULATORY ASPECTS OF}

CANADIAN HOUSING

This Technical Note was prepared in the first instance in answer to a questionnaire on housing in Canada from an international organization. The main

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The Division of Building Research is concerned only with the technical aspects of this relationship, but to appreciate the effect of technical standards on health in Canadian housing it is necessary to understand the general situation with regard to house building in Canada, the market factors that influence it and the controls to which it is subjected. These matters, discussed in this note, are the concern of several agencies including, at the local level, the Municipal and Provin-cial Government authorities, and at the national level, Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

House building in Canada is essentially a private operation, the majority of houses being initiated and constructed by private builders for sale to individuals. Government-built housing constitutes only about 1 to 2 per cent of the total and part of this percentage involves housing for the armed forces. A considerable proportion of privately built housing, however, has had some form of public assistance, largely in terms of mortgage insurance by the Federal Government issued under the National Housing Act through its agency, Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Houses built with such assistance in recent years constitute about 35 to 50 per cent of the yearly total and are required to meet certain minimum standards of construction and finish.

_ In addition, all houses must conform to the building bylaws established by the municipality in which they are built. These code requirements are intended to regulate house construction in the interest of structural sufficiency, fire protec-tion, and health, in contrast to the housing standards which as a mortgage concern

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-are designed to ensure a suitable level of quality in the house from the point of view of performance and re-sale value.

The housing standards used in construction under the National Housing Act were originally prepared by Central Mortgage and Housing Cor-poration. In January 1962 a combined document, containing the housing code requirements of the National Building Code and a completely new set of

standards was published under the auspices of the Associate Committee on the National Building Code. This Committee was set up by the National Research Council to promote uniform building regulations in Canada, and is responsible for the preparation and continuing revision of a model National Building Code for Canada. This combined document of code and standards for Housing is called IIHousing Standards Canada 1962." It governs all construction financed under the National Housing Act and is already being followed in much construc-tion outside the Act. In addition, its code provisions have been adopted by many municipalitie s.

A municipality obtains the right to regulate building construction within its boundaries through its Provincial Government. The degree to which it does this is a matter for local preference, and as a result the standard of enforcement varies across the country. In addition there are areas in which no local government exists and no regulations are in force other than those over which the Provincial Government exercises direct control. These include aspects of fire prevention, health, electrical installations, and the storage and use of gas and oil products. Each province is autonomous in these matters but by adopting nationally recommended standards, such as the Canadian Electrical Code of the Canadian Standards Association, the Plumbing Section of the National Building Code, the Municipal Fire Code established by the Associate Committee on the National Building Code, and the various GSA specifications on gas and oil-fired appliances, an increasing degree of uniformity of regulations is being obtained.

Against this background, it should be pointed out that the majority of new houses in Canada are built for owner occupancy - 66 per cent of all dwellings being owner occupied. The preferred dwelling is the single family house with basement, on its own plot of ground, although a trend to multiple family housing has been observed in recent years, with apartments and flats representing 31 per cent of all housing completions in 1961 and 38 per cent of the total completions for the first 8 months of 1962. A very high percentage of new house buyers are in the upper two-thirds of the income scale. One result of this is that most new houses are built to standards well above the minimum set for health, fire and structural safety. For example, a dwelling 600 to 700 ,sq ft in area would satisfy the minimum space requirements for a three-bedroom house established by "Housing Standards Canada 1962. It These

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-financed under the National Housing Act in recent years has been over 1100 sq ft. Mortgage lenders are reportedly hesitant to make loans on houses of less than 1000 sq it because of the difficulty of re-sale. Exceptions to the generally high standards of new house construction may occur in housing built without government assistance in those areas where local regulations are either lacking or are weakly enforced.

The relatively high standard of new Canadian housing poses few health problems and aspects of housing such as economics (including both initial and operating costs), structural stability, durability, and general performance properties, receive greater emphasis in most research studies.

The one area where considerable work is being done on health matters is in relation to sewage disposal. Systems in which toilet wastes may be handled in a completely self-contained unit within the home, or alternatively, in which all household wastes may be pretreated to reduce the load on septic tank

installations, are now under study for areas where there are no conventional sewage systems.

Studies of house planning, including kitchen layout and interior arrangements, are probably the items on which work is most needed in re-lation to Canadian housing and the over-all welfare of the family. This is one area however on which little is be ing done.

In contrast to new construction, there is much less control over the occupancy of existing dwellings which are usually the only dwellings

available to the lower income third. Some health and fire regulations of the provinces are intended to apply to existing buildings to ensure that hazardous conditions do not arise, and through these, local governments have the

authority to condemn housing that is unsafe or unsanitary. In addition, municipalities may enact legislation to compel property owners of existing housing to maintain them in a reasonable state of repair to conform with certain minimum standards of occupancy. Such legislation is intended to prevent the formation of shuns but has been little used in Canada; even when such legislation has been ｰｾｳｳ･､ it has not always been enforced.

In the 1961 census returns some 750,000 or 16.5 per cent of the

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com-pares with 642,000 or 18.8 per cent in 1951. A dwelling is listed as "crowded" when the number of persons exceeds the number of rooms. In addition, 255,000 dwellings or 5.6 per cent of the total are listed as "in need of major repair. " This compares with 457,000 or 13.4 per cent in 1951. It includes any dwelling in a seriously run-down or neglected condition, with at least one of the

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-(a) Sagging or crumbling foundation (b) Faulty roof or chimney

(c) Rotting door sills or window frames (d) Interior badly in need of repair.

These and some other statistics obtained from the 1961 census are reproduced in Table II and will assist in giving a clearer over-all picture of Canadian housing.

TABLE I

ROOM AREAS AND ROOM DIMENSIONS (Taken from "Housing Standards Canada 1962")

Minimum Area

In Combination

With Other Minimum Room or Space As Separ ate Room Space Dimension

Living room or space 145 sq it 145 sq it 9 ft 10 in Dining room or space 75 sq ft 35 sq ft 7 it 6 in Kitchen or Idtchen space 45 sq ft 45 sq ft When built- When

built-in bedroom in bedroom Bedrooms cabinet cabinet

is not provi- is ded provided First bedroom 105 sq it 95 sq ft 8 ft 10 in Each additional bedroom 75 sq ft 55 sq it 5 it 10 in Bedroom space

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-TABLE II

SPECIFIED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS FOR CANADA, 1961 and 1951 (Taken from "CENSUS OF CANADA, 1961II)

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Number Per cent

Item 1961 1951 1961 1951

Total occupied dwellings 4,554,493 3,409,295 100.0 100.0 Dwellings by tenure: Owner-occupied 3,005,587 2,236,955 66.0 65.6 Tenant-occupied 1, 548,906 1,172,340 34.0 34.4 Dwellings by type: Single detached 2,978,501 2,275,615 65.4 66.7 Apartments, flats 1,151,098 885,565 25.3 26.0 Average number of rooms

per dwelling 5.3 5.3

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-"Crowded" dwellings 750,942 641,820 16.5 18.8 Dwellings in need of major

repair 255,414 457,570 5.6 13.4

Dwellings with mortgage 977,054 517,005 45.6 31. 3 Dwellings heated principally by:

Coal or wood 1,062,751 2,387,375 23.3 70.0

Oil 2,565,416 774, 535 56.3 22.7

Gas 857,953 163,165 18.8 4.8

Dwellings with:

Stearn or hot water furnace 829,984 529,465 18.2 15.5 Hot air furnace 2,242,237 1,052,570 49.2 30.9 Hot and cold running water 3,650,115 1,939,770 80. 1 56.9 Bath or shower 3,659,520 2,072,975 80.3 60.8 Flush toilet 3,880,512 2,328,855 85.2 68.3 Mechanical refrigerator 4,145,086 1,594,980 91. 0 46.8 Passenger automobile 3,114,677 1,442, 595 68.4 42.3