When is it too many people in an apartment? RANT

[Leareth]

Ok this is my rant for the week.

My neighbourhood demographics have been changing for the last couple of years, went from being a relatively cheap are to live in to mostly young professionals, retired folks and asian immigrants.
It the last category that is driving me nuts. I don't have anything against asian people let me get that out first.
But in the last years more families have been moving into the neighbourhood, this area is mostly bach/1br/2br apartments. So why are entire families , three generations, moving into a bloody one bedroom apartment???. There are seven people , 3 kids and four adults living across the street from me in a 1br apt. , in a two bedroom in the same building there are twelwe in one unit. another 1br there are five, another 6. In my building there were five in a 1br but they got evicted for breaking the by-law on safe occupation of residential premises...
How can people live like this? For short term I can understand it but long term no way, how are the kids suppossed to concentrate on school work, or the parents getting some peace and quiet after work. nevermind the privacy to do other things. Oh I should also mention that all these unit have only one bathroom, can you imagine the line ups in the mornings...
just a rant.

Does anybody have a similar situation in their neighbourhoods?

 

[WildCowboy]

In California, the standard is two per bedroom plus one. (So, three people in a one-bedroom, five in a two-bedroom, etc.) That's not to say there aren't cases where there are more than that, but it's illegal to discriminate against potential renters whose family sizes meet those standards.

 

[Leareth]

Here there is a by-law regarding that too : bach= 1, 1br =2-3, 2br=3-4,
anything more and you are suppossed to get a 3br or more apt or a house.
In a house its based on square footage per person, but not more than 8 females over 18 in one dwelling since then it qualifies as an brothel.

 

[bousozoku]

More than one person in an apartment is too many to me.

Asian family life is different, it's true. You don't think of your grandparents as a nuisance as much as they are the foundation of your family.

Vancouver is probably pretty expensive compared to where they were, so they have to go with a smaller place than they would like. Houses in Japan are quite small and your living room might also be your bedroom. In other parts of Asia, things aren't so luxurious.

That said, I'd be a little annoyed, too. I'm the non-Asian when it comes to having space. I like a lot of it.

 

[livingfortoday]

A lot of people can't afford to have multiple apartments, especially since you have to put up a deposit on most places. I wouldn't want to live like that, but if I didn't have a choice, whaddya gonna do, ya know?