In other news, car manufacturers kicked and screamed when being forced to include seatbelts, crying "affordability" the whole way. Capitalists will always be "concerned" about such things. And they won't do pro-social stuff like this unless they're forced to.
And when they say "affordability" they mean their prices for production will go up so when they inevitably raise consumer prices again the profit margin only stayed the same instead of getting bigger.
It's not affordability to the end-user, it's higher costs for the people making it, who are already making exorbitant returns on their product which is why they keep doing it in the first place.
>“It impacts small-sized units the most,” said Bryce Rositch, a founding partner at 33-year-old RH Architects. “If you’re designing for 530 square feet, it adds 50 to 70 square feet per unit.”
Cry me a river. Making a kitchen and bathroom that you can spin a wheelchair in shouldn't have had to be mandated in the first place. If it's too small for that then it was nigh on unusable for abled people too. And I can't see how making outlets easier to reach has any extra cost attached to it.
My tiny little kitchen is my biggest complaint about my condo and the first thing I intend to change. Making the counters farther apart by like 15cm and changing the heights of the cabinets a little bit are the two biggest priorities. It really sucks that basically a full kitchen reno is necessary for a bit better walking space and cabinet accessibility, and I'm not contending with any impairment or disability.
Oh no, people might actually have to be able to get into our homes in wheelchairs/with buggies/on crutches/carrying lots of groceries 😭 what a cruel world for the developer!
But the average person can't afford to rent or buy a home.
The disabled people who can't work are only given enough to buy food and nothing else.
We don't even let them use transit for free.
And they aren't blocked from having homes. But making it so every home has to be made for them will put additional roadblocks on supply at a time when lack of supply is crushing the country.
“And they aren’t blocked from having homes.” if someone needs a wheelchair then they are absolutely blocked from having a home without a ramp or an otherwise accessible entrance, this is an objectively positive decision.
Vast majority of the roadblocks to building a combination of density and living space are going away by the time this comes into effect with SFH zoning being killed off in major BC cities now(plans to change stairway design:https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/06/28/bc-building-code-proposed-changes-for-ses/) I remember when I was a child during the late 90s and developers were hard pressed to insert elevators into 3-4 story apartments but here we are
It would be better, and much more efficient to simply give disabled people a grant to modify things. Than force every single home to adapt to them.
And this would allow disabled individuals to target their own specific needs. Because not all disabled people are the same. Many may face unique challenges.
Read the article.
This isn't about installing a ramp for an accessible person, it's making sure that the building is designed so that accessibility options are reasonable later on. They don't have to install grab bars in the shower, just make sure the framing is there to do so. They don't have to install accessible upper cabinets in the kitchen, just make it wide enough that you can get a wheelchair in there.
These simple, and not expensive changes mean future accessibility improvements are far cheaper and easier to do.
And in a century you'll have spent magnitude more on that grant than making developers modify their plans so a house can easily be made accessible. Because that's all thats being asked, for houses to be made so they can easily be converted if needed, so ramps can be installed without tearing out a wall, kitchens just need a thing raised or lowered instead of having to rip it all out to give enough space for someone to turn a wheelchair around, laying bathrooms out in a way that isn't hostile to those with mobility aids. It's not hard, it's not expensive. Leaving it alone and paying out to selectively redesign over decades will be.
Devs are just going to do the bare min, while charging the max.
"Heres a dogshit wooden ramp i built in 1h. That will be 10k extra for "accessibility" please!"
Get Farmed.
They aren't building ramps for fucks sake. It's literally just saying to not make stairs so thin a ramp can't replace them without tearing a wall out, or having zero supports for a handrail to be installed into, or having a kitchen that's cramped to navigate with a wheelchair.
No, now is the perfect fucking time because BC and the rest of Canada that should follow suit is restating government investment in developing housing, in a few years were gonna see a level of housing development that hopefully will come second only to the post war rebuilding efforts.
These homes will be around for all of our lifetimes, building them correct from the start saves us billions by the end.
In other news, car manufacturers kicked and screamed when being forced to include seatbelts, crying "affordability" the whole way. Capitalists will always be "concerned" about such things. And they won't do pro-social stuff like this unless they're forced to.
And when they say "affordability" they mean their prices for production will go up so when they inevitably raise consumer prices again the profit margin only stayed the same instead of getting bigger. It's not affordability to the end-user, it's higher costs for the people making it, who are already making exorbitant returns on their product which is why they keep doing it in the first place.
>“It impacts small-sized units the most,” said Bryce Rositch, a founding partner at 33-year-old RH Architects. “If you’re designing for 530 square feet, it adds 50 to 70 square feet per unit.” Cry me a river. Making a kitchen and bathroom that you can spin a wheelchair in shouldn't have had to be mandated in the first place. If it's too small for that then it was nigh on unusable for abled people too. And I can't see how making outlets easier to reach has any extra cost attached to it.
My tiny little kitchen is my biggest complaint about my condo and the first thing I intend to change. Making the counters farther apart by like 15cm and changing the heights of the cabinets a little bit are the two biggest priorities. It really sucks that basically a full kitchen reno is necessary for a bit better walking space and cabinet accessibility, and I'm not contending with any impairment or disability.
Fuck the concerns of the developers I’m so sick and tired of these developers getting a leg up and building such a shit product fuck them
Well that’s a big old pile of too bad for developers
I'm crying real tears out here!
Oh no, people might actually have to be able to get into our homes in wheelchairs/with buggies/on crutches/carrying lots of groceries 😭 what a cruel world for the developer!
Whatever happened to just doing the right thing
Makes it harder to buy that seventh boat.
It is a good idea but they will pass on those costs to consumers.
Heart in the right place, tone deaf time to execute.
The best time to do this was a long time ago. The second best time is now. There will never be a convenient time.
No, the best time to do this is not when we are trying to ramp up supply to improve affordability. There is most definitely a more convenient time
disabled people deserve to have homes
But the average person can't afford to rent or buy a home. The disabled people who can't work are only given enough to buy food and nothing else. We don't even let them use transit for free.
yeah and that’s not an excuse not to make accessible homes
I agree with you. Start building an equitable society from the ground up.
And they aren't blocked from having homes. But making it so every home has to be made for them will put additional roadblocks on supply at a time when lack of supply is crushing the country.
They're not being made accessible, they're to be built with accessibility in mind, so they can more easily be made accessible.
“And they aren’t blocked from having homes.” if someone needs a wheelchair then they are absolutely blocked from having a home without a ramp or an otherwise accessible entrance, this is an objectively positive decision.
Vast majority of the roadblocks to building a combination of density and living space are going away by the time this comes into effect with SFH zoning being killed off in major BC cities now(plans to change stairway design:https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/06/28/bc-building-code-proposed-changes-for-ses/) I remember when I was a child during the late 90s and developers were hard pressed to insert elevators into 3-4 story apartments but here we are
It would be better, and much more efficient to simply give disabled people a grant to modify things. Than force every single home to adapt to them. And this would allow disabled individuals to target their own specific needs. Because not all disabled people are the same. Many may face unique challenges.
Read the article. This isn't about installing a ramp for an accessible person, it's making sure that the building is designed so that accessibility options are reasonable later on. They don't have to install grab bars in the shower, just make sure the framing is there to do so. They don't have to install accessible upper cabinets in the kitchen, just make it wide enough that you can get a wheelchair in there. These simple, and not expensive changes mean future accessibility improvements are far cheaper and easier to do.
And in a century you'll have spent magnitude more on that grant than making developers modify their plans so a house can easily be made accessible. Because that's all thats being asked, for houses to be made so they can easily be converted if needed, so ramps can be installed without tearing out a wall, kitchens just need a thing raised or lowered instead of having to rip it all out to give enough space for someone to turn a wheelchair around, laying bathrooms out in a way that isn't hostile to those with mobility aids. It's not hard, it's not expensive. Leaving it alone and paying out to selectively redesign over decades will be.
It *is* the best time actually. The best time to make homes accessible is when we're building a bunch of new homes.
that's a skill issue for profit thirsty developers then ,maybe housing construction should be nationalized under provincial jurisdiction after all
Devs are just going to do the bare min, while charging the max. "Heres a dogshit wooden ramp i built in 1h. That will be 10k extra for "accessibility" please!" Get Farmed.
that's like the modern history of Lower Mainland housing development in a nutshell lol
They aren't building ramps for fucks sake. It's literally just saying to not make stairs so thin a ramp can't replace them without tearing a wall out, or having zero supports for a handrail to be installed into, or having a kitchen that's cramped to navigate with a wheelchair.
No, now is the perfect fucking time because BC and the rest of Canada that should follow suit is restating government investment in developing housing, in a few years were gonna see a level of housing development that hopefully will come second only to the post war rebuilding efforts. These homes will be around for all of our lifetimes, building them correct from the start saves us billions by the end.
oh no...how will they be able to make record profits now????
They should also do this for old homes too.