Are millennials hacking housing with community homes?
CBC Radio | Posted: March 14, 2016 12:12 PM | Last Updated: November 21, 2016
It may be surprising to think that modern day tech-savvy millennials could be the ones to bring communal living back in style, but with affordable housing being harder and harder to find, that's exactly what's happening.
When producer Willow Yamauchi's daughter started thinking of a place to call her own, it brought up questions of how young people find affordable living in major cities like Vancouver. What Yamauchi found were groups of millennials sharing mansions and ex-hotels, creating community homes.
I believe the main difference between roommates living together in a community home is when there is a focus put on doing things together and creating a space together rather than just ... sharing a space with people. - Vita Antonio Spinelli lives with six others (and a few pets) in the Merkaba Community Collective
Guests in this segment:
- Vita Antonio Spinelli, 22, lives in the Merkaba Community Collective — a mansion that houses seven millennials.
- Sophia Suderman, 32, lives in the Atangard Community Project — a converted hotel that's home to a dozen millennials.
- Geoff Meggs, councillor with the City of Vancouver for the past eight years
The documentary The Housing Hack was produced by The Current's Willow Yamauchi and documentary editor Joan Webber for our series The Ripple Effect.