🏠 A Registry for Dignity: Reviving the Boarding House in British Columbia
Is a McMansion in Suburbia the Perfect Lair for a Boarding House?
By Dwight Gilbert Jones
Humanism.substack.com
In an age of deepening loneliness, soaring housing costs, and overwhelmed healthcare systems, one humble and time-tested model is quietly making a comeback: the boarding house.
Once a dignified refuge for retired loggers, widowers, students, and working men across Vancouver, boarding houses offered structure, community, and a warm meal at day’s end. Their decline—driven by overregulation, zoning shifts, and cultural change—left thousands isolated and vulnerable.
Today, we propose a return to that model, updated for a modern British Columbia.
🌾 The New Boarding House Registry
The British Columbia Boarding House Registry (BCBHR) is a new provincial initiative designed to support registered householders—especially older men or retired workers—who wish to open their homes to boarders in a structured, dignified way.
Each boarding house offers:
A private room (rented at a clearly stated monthly price)
Two daily meals (typically breakfast and dinner)
A registered, live-in host who meets safety and eligibility criteria
But this is more than a subsidy scheme. It’s a community-building engine backed by AI, regulated by the province, and designed to monetize compassion while restoring meaning and security for both hosts and boarders.
🧑🍳 Hosts as Gentlemen Innkeepers
To qualify, a host must:
Be a registered taxpayer
Own and live in the home
Complete an extended profile survey
Pass a basic safety inspection
Declare their hosting activity on their tax return (allowing resale of the house as an income-generating business)
They provide home-cooked meals, light hospitality, and consistency—not full caregiving. In return, they receive:
Rental income
Eligibility for retrofit grants and insurance subsidies
A potential small business asset they can one day sell
🤝 Boarders: Dignity Without Dependency
Applicants complete their own detailed survey, noting:
Dietary needs
Mobility requirements
Routine preferences (early riser, night owl, etc.)
Interests and communication style
The province then uses AI to match them with compatible hosts—based not just on location and price, but on personality fit, lifestyle, and mutual respect.
🧠 AI Matching: More Than a Room
Unlike emergency housing or shelters, the Boarding House Registry intentionally curates social compatibility. Think of it as a non-romantic dating system for communal living—designed to reduce friction, loneliness, and burnout.
Matches are proposed to both parties. No one is forced into a fit that doesn’t work. But over time, the system improves, learning from feedback and generating better social microclimates within each household.
💰 Structure and Transparency
Room rent and meal costs are priced separately and clearly posted.
The Registry offers public visibility of available houses, searchable by region and price.
Eligible applicants may qualify for rent subsidies through BC Housing.
Hosts can deduct relevant expenses and claim business tax credits.
🛠 Building Back Trust, One Meal at a Time
We envision a province where:
The isolated find connection without losing their independence
Homeowners can earn income with dignity
Housing becomes not just a commodity, but a shared structure of care
The Registry is not a nostalgia project. It’s a scalable social contract that brings together human warmth and technological foresight.
💬 Want to Host? Need a Room?
Visit humanism.substack.com to register as a host or apply as a boarder. Survey tools are online, with paper versions available at community centers. (This is a demo…)
Dignity can be served, one plate at a time.
And your home might be someone else’s turning point.
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