Making room for whom? Co-living as a reinvention of rooming houses for the commodified city

Abstract

<div>Co-living, a form of living characterized by individually rented rooms with shared amenities, is framed by proponents as an innovative form of housing that addresses many ills of contemporary urban life, such as housing affordability and isolation. However, the practice of renting individual rooms is not new, providing some of the lowest-cost market housing in North American cities including Toronto. I trace the lineage of various forms of collective living to conceptualize the roots of co-living. I argue that the rise of contemporary co-living and the decline of rooming houses in urban centres are part of the same process of urban transformation associated with</div><div>gentrification. Through interviews and chats with planners in Ontario and representatives from co-living companies, I compare the perspectives of various co-living stakeholders. I then explore the possible effects of the proliferation of co-living on housing affordability and rooming houses and what it means for policymakers moving forward.</div><div><br></div><div>Key words: co-living, rooming houses, housing, gentrification</div>