I keep thinking of houseplexes.

A houseplex is a large house subdivided into self-contained suites. If you walk/pedal/drive by one, a houseplex looks pretty much like the houses beside it … until you count mailboxes.

Rockland Avenue and the streets that run off it are a good place to take a houseplex tour.

Some have been altered carefully and cleverly; some look like glorified rooming houses waiting to meet their maker.

Forgive me for drowning in rhapsody, but I believe houseplexes are the perfect response to Victoria’s affordable housing needs.

The point is simple: Houseplexes can be built efficiently, attractively (study the image with this column), affordably, quickly and without diminishing neighbourhood character or Victoria’s worldwide, and possibly galactic, reputation as a little bit of olde eyewash.

I was just file rummaging and found a thankfully unfinished paper cleverly titled: “Houseplex — Density Without Damage.”

The province has mandated that municipalities must allow up to six units or suites on a lot, regardless of current zoning.

There has, I understand, been relatively little take-up in the Victoria area, simply because the numbers don’t work, a fact painfully revealed in my column a week ago, which estimated current all-in pricing at approximating $1,000 per square........

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