Triage and Housing
The housing crisis is a matter of life and death, and we need to act like it.
When I was 22, I fractured my elbow playing basketball with friends. I went to the emergency room, where I then had to wait for several hours so that hospital staff could give care to people with more urgent needs. In a hospital, we recognize that prioritization (also called triage) is the right thing to do. It would have been absurd to make someone suffering a heart attack wait while I got treated for a fractured elbow.
Triage is an effective way to manage a crisis. Given that housing is a life and death issue, why don’t we treat it the same way?
Triage Means Focusing on What Matters Most
Imagine for a moment that we are the nurses tasked with triaging the housing crisis.
When a hospital emergency room nurse performs triage, the first step is to assess the situation and prioritize resources based on urgency. If someone has a heart attack, that person gets immediate attention. Someone with less severe injury, while still needing care, will have to wait. That doesn't mean their issue isn't important, nor that it won’t be dealt with, it simply means it’s not as critical to deal with first.
This same mindset should be applied to housing. Ending the housing crisis should be our primary focus. We need more below-market homes, more rentals, more supportive housing, more condos, more of everything. And we need it fast. Concerns about how tall a building is or whether its design fits the character of a neighborhood can, and should, be secondary. The priority must be on addressing the severe shortage of available homes and giving people access to safe, stable living conditions.
The Crisis is Real, and it is Deadly
The housing crisis is about survival. Shelter is a human right, just like water, food, and physical safety. Our immense shortage of housing forces hundreds of people every year into homelessness and other forms of unsafe and unsanitary living conditions. Ask anyone under 30 and they will have at least one story about ex-partners living together after breaking up because they can’t find a place to live. Victims of domestic abuse are being forced to stay with abusive partners because they can’t afford to leave. People are dying because of our failure to solve this problem. Yet when a new housing development is proposed, even non-profit and deeply affordable homes, we often focus primarily on things like height, shadows, and neighborhood character.
This isn’t to say these concerns are unimportant. Far from it! Good urban design is important, and we should have clear, easy to follow rules and processes that produce the kinds of housing we want to see in our community. But we are facing an emergency, and our response must reflect that. To argue that new housing projects should be delayed, altered, or even outright rejected because they might cast a shadow on neighbouring properties misses the point. These concerns are important, but they shouldn’t overshadow (pun absolutely intended) the larger picture. We need housing to accommodate our growing population, provide relief to those already living in precarious situations, and prevent others from slipping through the cracks.
We also need to recognize that the housing crisis disproportionately affects the most vulnerable groups in society: low-income individuals, marginalized communities, the elderly, and people with disabilities. For these groups especially, the housing crisis is a matter of survival, not of preference or inconvenience.
The Urgency of Change
We need more housing, and we need it now. Of course, this doesn’t mean we should disregard the environmental or social impact of housing developments altogether. Just as a heart attack patient might require specialized care, housing projects can, and should. be built with thoughtful consideration for long-term sustainability, community impact, and livability. However, we're in a crisis, and it's essential to prioritize immediate action over perfection.
In the same way that we would never waste precious time in a hospital debating the cosmetic effects of stitches when someone is bleeding out, we must stop stalling on solutions that will end the housing crisis because of fears about "visual harmony" or the inconvenience of change. The cost of inaction is far too high.
Prioritizing Solutions
The housing crisis is no longer a problem that can be ignored or postponed. It requires immediate, large-scale interventions. While thoughtful planning and responsible design are important, they cannot overshadow the urgency of the situation. We need to build now, we need to build fast, and we need to prioritize results over perfection.
By adopting a triage mindset, we can focus on providing housing for everyone, starting with the most vulnerable, and work towards long-term, sustainable solutions once the immediate need is met. The time to act is now. Let’s start focusing on what really matters: giving people the homes they need to survive, thrive, and build a better future.
