'A roof over their head': York Region affordable housing crisis fuels issue of illegal rooming houses

Yorkregion.com
May 19, 2021

York Region's real estate market is red-hot and that's amplifying the community's affordable housing crisis, forcing many people in need of a place to live to turn to illegal rooming houses, which can be overcrowded, filthy and, in some cases, dangerous.

Regional council recently acknowledged the dire situation with a motion back in February and has started putting ideas on the table to try to create solutions.

It was welcome news to those who work in the social services sector, said Yvonne Kelly, chair of the Social Planning Council of York Region.

"We commend the acknowledgment of the region and the elected officials to do something about it now that we recognized we are in a housing crisis," Kelly said.

Newmarket Mayor John Taylor supported proposals aimed at making more land available for affordable housing projects, including one that calls on every municipality to provide two acres of land every five years for affordable housing units.

But that will take years to bear fruit.

In the meantime, many people who don't earn enough to pay sky-high rents and can't get a spot in an affordable housing complex are opting to live in often squalid conditions in illegal rooming houses.

Arif Adnan Syed, a Markham man who would lease luxury homes in Richmond Hill, Markham and Thornhill and then illegally convert the single-family dwellings into rooming houses, said he came across many people in need of a room for different situations.

The likely renters Syed said he'd often come across were new immigrants, or international students.

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Yorkregion.com spoke with multiple rooming house renters of Syed's in the past, who described the living conditions as filthy and dangerous.

"The cost of rental housing is simply unaffordable for many low-income earners," said Tom Pearson, chair of the Poverty Action for Change Coalition.

"Apartments are pretty much off the table for welfare recipients unless it’s subsidized housing, which we have very little of, especially for singles, and a 10-plus-year waiting list for families," said Pearson.

"So there is desperation there. Thus, they will take almost anything because of that ..." he added.

The desperation of people for housing raises another issue, Kelly said, and that is people who have a "profit motive" to exploit it for their own needs.

"This kind of crisis opens up the opportunity for people who have intentions to profit off that," Kelly said.

"Will people rent out a room because they have no other choice? Absolutely," she added.

York Region has a 1 per cent vacancy rate of rental units, which is the lowest in Canada. This increases competition to get into the housing market, which Kelly said allows for owners and landlords to take advantage -- thus, leaving people with low incomes to enter situations like rooming houses, remain homeless or couch-surf.

Kelly said there are strategies the Social Planning Council is working on and is hoping elected officials will act on to make housing affordable.

A "right to housing framework" is one thing Kelly said would ensure government departments take into account whether the measures they take are increasing affordable housing and discouraging housing commodification.

She also mentioned implementing a vacant homes tax in the region so that revenue would be reinvested into affordable housing initiatives.

Vancouver introduced an empty home tax in 2017, and since its inception, has allocated $61.3 million to support a variety of affordable housing strategies and the affordability of social housing and to support renters.

"This can be done," Kelly said.

York Region hasn't proposed making rooming houses legal.

"We want to see the municipalities take the challenge over the next five years to make two acres of municipal land available strictly for affordable housing," said Kelly. "We want to see them take the challenge.

"Right now, the framework isn't a legal obligation (where) cities make sure people have an affordable place to live."