Media, politicians, planners, activists and housing critics like to throw around the adjective “single-family homes” (SFH) when describing detached houses and neighbourhoods zoned for detached houses. As housing prices become out-of-reach of the common person, critics slam “single-family homes” saying that zoning for them should be abolished in favour of denser multi-family housing forms. Whatever your opinion is on “single-family homes”, please stop using that term.
“Single-family homes” are not always “single-family homes”, especially if you grew up in lower to middle-class immigrant ethno-enclaves in the Lower Mainland. By using the term “single-family home”, one dehumanizes the way of how people actually live in detached houses in favour of a broad-stroke narrative that vilifies working-class families as “greedy homeowners” unwilling to densify their property.