Teri Boates and Alex Stover have been living together for two years – officially, that is. They’ve been on the same lease for the last two years, but spent the year before that sleeping over at each other’s places.
“Just packing a bag and staying there for a few days and really spending most of my time there,” said Boates of her habits in her first year dating Stover. “So that’s when the next year we thought maybe we should just get one together instead of paying two rents for two different places.”
Boates and Stover spent the past academic year living at 5960 Spring Garden Road, along with two of their close friends. As unmarried romantic partners living together continuously for over 12 months, Boates and Stover qualify as a common law couple. And as a common law couple, they contributed to a growing trend in their neighbourhood.
Boates and Stover lived in a census tract with boundaries from Robie to South Park to the west and east and from South Street to the Commons and Citadel to the south and north, respectively. Between 2011 and 2016, the incidence of common law couples in that area increased by 36%.
A map showing the various census tracts in Halifax, colour-coded by percent increase in the incidence of common law couples. The darker the colour, the higher the increase. Click on an area to see its statistics.
Even though that statistic seems telling, Martha Radice, an associate professor of anthropology in Dalhousie’s department of sociology and social anthropology, warns not to read too much into it.
“It’s quite difficult to know what’s going on in the area without comparing that to other changes in family dynamics and household composition,” she said.
Between 2011 and 2016 there was a 15% increase in the number of families in that census tract, and only a 5% increase of married couples. Those increases are contrasted by a drop of over 30% in the rate of married couples with children in the same.
Those stats provide a clearer picture, but they still don’t tell the whole story.
“It all depends what the change is reflecting,” said Radice. “You might have a change in the kind of housing tenure in the census tract. So maybe it’s just that there’s a whole bunch of apartments built that offer great young couple accommodation.”
It’s a plausible theory, but according to this study on the history of condos in Halifax, the number of condos in the tract hasn’t changed since last census (map on page 38/72). So what are some other possible contributing factors?
“It might just be people are choosing not to get married. If it was a decrease in solo households, then you might start thinking about housing costs have risen. Instead of living alone, people are moving in with their partners,” said Radice.
That last reason seems to hold true for Boates, who has lived with up to 6 roommates at a time in an effort to reduce her rent.
“If you’re going to be sharing with roommates anyway, and you’re partner is also looking to find a place – besides just having that mushy someone’s always there for you, and you cuddle someone every night – it does unfortunately come down to money,” she said.
Boates is a Nova Scotia native while Stover is from Oakville, Ontario, but they’ve managed to spend the last few summers together; Boates would stay with Stover at his parents’ house. Now, for the first time in three years, they will be living apart. Boates is staying in Halifax this fall while Stover is still in Ontario trying to become a paramedic.
Boates talking about the pros and cons of living with Stover, her boyfriend