Laneway Suites are Pretty Sweet
Laneway housing really strikes me as one of the more “perfect” policy solutions. Not in the sense that it is in itself the perfect solution to Toronto’s housing crisis but that, as a policy option, its implementation within the context of Toronto appears relatively ideal. The value of jurisdictional scanning has never been lost on me — the sharing of knowledge for the purpose of problem-solving is one of the most profound human experiences, but I digress. Hearing about the process to change the city’s by-law was encouraging in the sense that it is possible to adopt the solutions used by other jurisdictions, within a local context, in order to make an impact (literally, making an impact from the outside, LOL!).
The struggle to get there, however, is notable and the amount of time and resources that went into such a change is a reminder that policy changes are so often slow. But, I frequently find myself trying to engage in critical analysis pertaining to why we cannot seem to adopt the innovative and effective policy ideas of other jurisdictions. Beyond laneway housing, I look to things like Universal Basic Income (UBI), pharmacare (fingers crossed for the near future), certain employee protections (livable wages and/or workplace culture — ex. not being contacted outside of working hours), land value taxes (as a method to control housing and rental prices while increasing tax revenue), and the list goes on. Effective solutions exist but the political will does not seem to, which is why learning about the process of changing the by-law became all the more valuable.
The concept of a narrative has continually come out throughout the MPP program and while I understand the value of story-telling, I sometimes struggled to appreciate how narratives can change policy. Merging the bridge between societal benefits and political benefits has always felt like a game of 4D chess and while I cannot say that learning about the implementation of laneway housing changed that notion, it did make me feel a bit better about it. It reaffirmed the possibility of the adoption of ideas from other jurisdictions and also demonstrated that creative solutions beyond the scope of what is considered “feasible” at a given time can be successful.
I have to admit that my visual conception of what laneway housing would look like did not match the house I walked through. Once again, I was reminded of the importance of keeping an open mind when it comes to the effectiveness and implementation of different policy initiatives. The best part of this field trip was connecting with people outside of the policy realm who made policy change happen. Too often, I think policy professionals forget that we are not the only forgers of policy.
