The property itemizing’s flooring plan reveals six bedrooms on the principle flooring and an extra seven within the basement
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A house on the market in northeast Calgary has caught the eye of the town, and is elevating concern amongst housing advocates as a result of its marketed variety of bedrooms.
The bungalow on Whitaker Shut N.E., locally of Whitehorn, is listed for $500,000 on Realtor.ca and different itemizing web sites. The home was in-built 1980 and consists of simply over 1,100 sq. toes of dwelling house.
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However essentially the most eyebrow-raising characteristic of the in any other case unassuming itemizing is the property’s 13 bedrooms, unfold throughout the principle flooring and basement.
Whereas the itemizing doesn’t present any inside pictures, it does embody a flooring plan that reveals six bedrooms on the principle flooring with two loos and a kitchen, in addition to seven further bedrooms within the basement, complemented by an extra toilet and shared laundry room.
The footage of every bed room can be included, with the smallest measuring roughly 57 sq. toes. The ground plan exhibits that every bed room has or shares a window.
The true property agent promoting the property didn’t return a number of requests for remark Thursday, whereas eXp Realty and the Justin Havre Actual Property Workforce, that are additionally included on the itemizing, directed Postmedia to contact different brokerages.
The itemizing garnered consideration amongst Calgarians after it was shared throughout numerous social media platforms.
Town confirmed it and the Calgary Hearth Division are conscious of the property and are investigating to see if it complies with Calgary’s land-use bylaw, in addition to hearth and constructing codes, which require a bed room to have a minimum of one window for egress. Town stated it couldn’t present additional remark.
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Maggy Wlodarczrk, chair of the native chapter of Calgary ACORN — a nationwide tenants’ rights group — stated the variety of bedrooms raises questions.
“Whereas growing the availability of housing is essential in addressing Calgary’s housing disaster, we have to be certain that this doesn’t compromise well being and security, and that it passes all essential inspections,” Wlodarczrk stated.
“It’s necessary to ask whether or not the revenue generated is benefiting tenants by way of affordable rents, or if it primarily advantages landlords trying to maximize revenue from overcrowded or substandard situations.”
Meaghon Reid, the manager director of Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC), which stewards the town’s poverty-reduction technique and advocates on behalf of low-income residents, stated the family is an instance of overcrowding — a problem she feels is probably going extra prevalent than many Calgarians understand.
Overcrowding refers to when the variety of individuals residing in a housing unit exceeds the nationwide occupancy commonplace for that measurement of unit, based on the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
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Reid referred to as overcrowding a “pretty disguised” problem in Calgary that correlates with the town’s rising unaffordability of housing.
“The magnitude of this explicit problem is fairly important,” she stated, pointing to a VCC research that discovered greater than 40,000 households in Calgary had been one paycheque or monetary emergency away from slipping into homelessness.
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For a lot of Calgarians who’re on the point of homelessness, Reid stated the final step earlier than getting into a shelter is commonly to overcrowd a housing unit by doubling and even tripling up with different households.
However whereas doing so might help save considerably on lease, Reid argued there are questions of safety for properties with so many bedrooms, similar to having applicable egress within the occasion of an emergency.
Overcrowding may diminish tenants’ high quality of life, she added, contemplating issues similar to privateness and company.
“Our houses are purported to be refuge . . . and for some individuals, that’s not the case,” she stated.
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