The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. unveiled a catalogue of free-to-use home designs this week, which are supposed to make it easier and quicker to get housing approved. The designs are specifically meant for homes to fill the so-called “missing middle” in established lower-density neighbourhoods: not traditional detached single-family homes, not apartment buildings, but the things in between, like fourplexes, six-plexes and laneway houses.

“By offering technical design packages that give builders and communities a head start in planning new housing projects, the catalogue reduces the time and effort needed to move from concept to construction,” CMHC explains .

It’s not the be-all and end-all of the housing crisis, by any means, but nor does it claim to be. And it worked before. I

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