A Victoria organization has a fascinating idea to put modular houses on under-used land as one way to ease the housing crunch. It’s the kind of innovative thinking we need to solve a problem that often seems intractable.
Anomura Housing Society is working with the Greater Victoria school district on a feasibility study, and also wants to tap provincial and municipal governments for possible locations.
The idea is that all of them have land that sits unused, often because its long-term use hasn’t been decided. Rather than let that land sit idle while people need a place to live, why not install modular houses that can easily be moved in and moved out?
The houses can be put together in various configurations to suit the location and the need.
The group hasn’t identified specific sites because it’s far too early in the process, but many institutions have unused land on the edges of properties.
Of course, much work has to be done to determine whether this concept would work in practice, and it would be only part of the solution to a large problem. Whether or not it succeeds, Anomura is bringing imaginative thinking to the housing crisis.
