Proxy occupancy standard

Guide for use:

Households that require two or more additional bedrooms to meet the standard are considered to be overcrowded.

For sole parent or couple households with more than four children the dwelling size in terms of bedrooms should be the same value as the total number of children in the household.

Where more than one of the groups specified in the occupancy standard is present, the needs of the two or more groups should be added together. For example, a sole parent with one child living with the sole parent's parents (three generations) would require 4 bedrooms, that is, 2 bedrooms for the sole parent and child and 2 bedrooms for the married couple.

The appropriate size is not necessarily the current dwelling size.

Only the usual residents of the household are included.

Adults include children aged 16 or more.

National Housing Assistance Data Dictionary Version 1

The proxy occupancy standard is a nationally agreed standard for CSHA reporting and does not necessarily reflect the jurisdictions/agency's own allocation policy.

The standard is currently being reviewed by the NHDAMG to improve the applicability across all household types.

There are other standards that are used to measure overcrowding, for example the Canadian National Occupancy Standard. The standard here is based on the standard in Version 2 of the NHADD with the only change being that sole parents or couples with more than four children have a required bedroom size equivalent to the number of children.