are leaving more and more people struggling to find an affordable place to live. National conversations about the housing crisis often overlook a growing segment of the population that is extremely vulnerable to housing discrimination, rent gouging, rights abuses and sexual harassment: .

Canada had more than , around 40 per cent of whom come from India. While all these students need housing, many face discrimination in the rental market.  into Punjabi newcomers in Canada has found that some landlords discriminate against international students based on gender and ethnicity.

Discriminatory ads

An online search for rentals shows many ads for properties that are available to international students. In addition, many ads are aimed at Indian students with landlords seeking tenants who are vegetarian or from particular regions of India.

The wording in the ads seems innocuous, but many can be  and prey on international students. Landlords often demand . And international students are often sought because their relatively recent arrival in Canada and temporary migration status means they are less likely to complain.

Housing as a human right

Even though these ads violate the , they continue to be posted on public websites. The code defines the right to be free from discrimination in housing as “not only the right to enter into an agreement and occupy a residential dwelling, but also the right to be free from discrimination in all matters relating to the accommodation.”

Das Gupta’s ongoing research features in-depth interviews with students and service providers. Respondents have shared that many live-in landlords tend to infantilize and over-monitor them. Others, especially female international students, have experienced  as well as .

A 2018 survey at McGill University found that .

Sub-standard, illegal and overcrowded housing

Accommodation aimed at international students can often be . Many often lack fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors and have pest infestations. Many secondary units in single-family homes, like basement suites, are built without permits and not to code.

Brampton, Ont., a city where many Indian international students reside, had a , which is well below the minimum of three per cent considered acceptable. It is no wonder then that Brampton has an estimated 50,000 illegal units.

This is dangerous and can lead to tragic outcomes. In January,  in a fire in an overcrowded international student house. In December 2022, Cape Breton University  because of the shortage of suitable accommodation.

Another common issue with housing for international students is . With rental costs increasingly unaffordable, many students are renting single rooms with others. Some online ads even offer a room with only one bed that is to be shared with another tenant the student does not know. One ad on Kijiji stated: “looking for 1 Indian girl to share one room with another Punjabi girl.”

Stories of  and  are common across Canada. These incidents combined with the costly rental market mean that homelessness is a common experience for students. A 2018 study found that more than .

While the study did not focus on international students in particular, Das Gupta’s ongoing research shows that  with stories of some students  because they cannot afford rent.

Ending the culture of exploitation

 exposed how international students at Cape Breton University and other Canadian post-secondary institutions are strategically recruited because they pay  than Canadians.

The extreme nature of the crisis at the university led students to , including raising awareness that complaining about human rights abuses, sexual assaults or other crimes will not hurt their chances of staying in Canada.

But such advocacy can only go so far. Structural changes by governments and post-secondary institutions are required and municipalities need to better regulate illegal rental units. And importantly,  must be consulted and heeded.

Co-written by 91��ɫ Professors Tania Das Gupta and Yvonne Su of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies

This article is republished from .

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TORONTO, August 29, 2017 ─ The presidents of Toronto’s four universities – 91��ɫ, the University of Toronto, OCAD University, and Ryerson University – have teamed up for a new initiative called StudentDwellTO to tackle one of the biggest issues facing post-secondary students in the Greater Toronto area: affordable housing.

The initiative brings together nearly 100 faculty and students from the four universities to take an in-depth look at student housing in the GTA.

This follows a previous collaboration between the four universities: a massive survey of student travel behaviour, called StudentMoveTO, which revealed that long daily commutes for students – many of whom live far away where housing is more affordable – were leading to lower campus engagement and in some cases limiting students’ class choices.

StudentMoveTO and StudentDwellTO are parts of an initiative by the presidents of the four universities aimed at improving the state of the city-region – and, in turn, the experiences for university students in the GTA.

“The GTA’s housing affordability crisis has attracted a lot of attention, but we know very little about how post-secondary students are coping in the current housing climate,” says 91��ɫ faculty member Luisa Sotomayor, co-principal Investigator of the StudentDwellTO project.  “More than 180,000 students attend the four universities in Toronto, but the distinct barriers they face get diluted in the larger affordability picture.”

The intention of the StudentDwellTO project is to identify creative initiatives and potential partnerships to keep housing adequate and accessible for Toronto’s increasingly diverse post-secondary student population, she said.

StudentDwellTO will look at housing affordability from a range of perspectives, bringing together disciplines including architecture, art, education, engineering, environmental studies and design, geography, psychology, real estate management and urban development and planning.

The two-year initiative will have heavy research and advocacy components, and the researchers will collect data using a variety of research methods that include:

• wide-scale focus groups and accompanying surveys to draw out narratives surrounding students’ lived experiences,
• interactive website and community arts programming and communication tools, and
• interactive maps to develop affordable housing strategies.

The subject matter will also be incorporated into experiential learning courses, across all four universities and various disciplines, to propose and test solutions to the student housing experience and crisis.

At 91��ɫ, for example, graduate Planning students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies will examine the strengths and limitations of existing student housing models on and around 91��ɫ’s Keele campus.

Along the way, researchers will collaborate with government, non-profit, private sector and community partners in the GTA.  Each university will hold public events, including affordable housing charrettes, to get a wide range of input on solutions.

is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 295,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

For more information:
Janice Walls, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416 736-5543, wallsj@yorku.ca

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