Student housing has been in crisis for years and new laws in Hamilton might offer an opportunity to bring back an old solution, could student co-operatives make a comeback?
Hamilton’s student housing market is a mess. Every year students struggle in a race to acquire limited off campus housing, often making sacrifices in cost or distance.
Student housing has also been subjected to increasing blame for Canada’s broader housing crisis, which has pushed the current liberal government into capping foreign student numbers in a weak attempt to address endemic problems.
Hamilton’s housing situation is particularly desperate, with both buying and renting remaining unaffordable for most. Despite being one of Hamilton’s top municipal issues, progress has been slow outside of the downtown core.
Recent changes to zoning regulations have made space for more gentle density development, allowing duplex, triplex and fourplex buildings in single unit zoned areas. These zoning changes offer a new path for student housing in the Ainslie Wood and Westdale areas where student housing is most concentrated. This could potentially mean a more diverse set of housing options and an expanded pool of available housing, all critical things to addressing the student housing crisis - but will it?
As high profile projects in Hamilton’s downtown core, backed by major developers, have been delayed due to increased capital costs, it shouldn’t be surprising that the small-landlord-dominated student housing market would be resistant or incapable of engaging in neighborhood-changing development. But what international investors may see as an emerging market opportunity, is not something students can afford to be kept out of the decision making process on.
The characterization of Canada’s student housing market as underdeveloped has some basis in the lived reality of students; a lack of purpose-built housing options is detrimental to both supply and choice. But current proposed solutions, such as the one offered by the Real Estate News Exchange, are not ideal for students. We don’t need more corporate owners building huge, unaccountable student dormitory towers.
There is however one radical alternative. Student co-operative housing has a long history in Canada. Canada’s oldest co-operative housing project is actually Toronto’s Campus Cooperative Residence, opened in 1934.
Student co-operative housing has a long history in Canada, Canada’s oldest co-operative housing project is actually Toronto’s Campus Cooperative Residence, opened in 1934.
In the latter half of the 20th century, rental co-op's emerged in force to support low and middle income communities in securing affordable, secure housing. The model sought to provide low-cost housing by eliminating a profit motive. Residents also take part in co-operative governance, electing a board to oversee the co-op's affairs and maintenance.
Student co-ops use the co-operative housing model to manage costs and community affairs in their buildings. This democratic process keeps profit making out of student housing and allows for students to create an affordable community-based alternative to extractive student housing. This democratic mechanism could be used to balance student housing needs and sustainable development objectives in the student neighborhoods surrounding McMaster.
The only issue with this utopian vision of democratic student residences should be obvious however - money. Whether it be the capital to build initial projects, or expand upon a hopefully successful model, a bunch of idealist students whose university careers might only last a few years are not ideal for securing loans.
For interested student activists there are examples of successful student co-ops to learn from across Canada. However, moving fast to capitalize on the opportunity offered by Hamilton’s new zoning regulations will take organizational capabilities and infrastructure that would be hard to build from the ground up quickly enough.
If the McMaster Students Union wants to make a serious impact in students' lives, using its organizational capabilities and status to facilitate the creation of co-operative student housing could make a permanent impact on McMaster student’s lives. The MSU could put itself at the forefront of a new movement with a bold, creative solution to student’s problems, but it will take daring leadership and effort to succeed.
The MSU could put itself at the forefront of a new movement with a bold, creative solution to student’s problems, but it will take daring leadership and effort to succeed.
Recent interest from the federal government in using co-operative housing means there are opportunities — and possible funding — to tap into.
Amid Canada's housing crisis, the cap on international students will fail to address it and only comes at the cost of their education and futures
News flash: Canada is suffering from a housing crisis! What a surprise.
The lack of housing, and affordable housing at that, has been a chronic issue affecting off-campus students. In recent years, renting costs have dramatically increased..
Partly in response to the lack of affordable housing, the Canadian government implemented a two-year cap on the number of international students to be admitted into the country. They also implemented rules limiting these students from receiving work permits and buying homes in Canada.
Partly in response to the lack of affordable housing, the Canadian government implemented a two-year cap on the number of international students to be admitted into the country
According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the temporary cap would help to regulate the number of students in the country and reduce demand on the housing market.
Specifically, it limits the enrollment of international students to approximately 360,000 individuals, a 35% decrease from last year's statistics.
Each province or territory is receiving a cap that is proportional to their population. Each province and territory will receive a specified cap based on its population size and provinces are able to decide how they want to allocate their cap across their universities.
For example, Ontario is estimated to have a cap of 236,373 international students for this academic year, while Alberta will have a cap of 71,149 international students. Although these may seem like drastic differences, the amount of international students Ontario plans to admit is down 133,404 from last year while Alberta could experience an increase of 36,243 international students.
The international student cap will not solve the housing crisis because they are by no means the cause. More significantly, the cap will perpetuate unfair blame targeted towards these students, unrightfully holding them partly responsible for the state of the Canadian economy.
The idea that international students are a big contributor to the housing crisis is incorrect. Considering the deep and interconnected economic issues that have produced the current housing crisis, it should not be expected that cap will have any meaningful positive effect on the issue.
Unaffordable housing and rent costs, increasing inflation, the cost of building materials and difficulties within the labour market are some of the major contributors to the housing crisis. The slight contribution to our population that international students make is not the problem we face.
Considering the deep and interconnected economic issues that have produced the current housing crisis, it should not be expected that cap will have any meaningful positive effect on the issue . . . The slight contribution to our population that international students make is not the problem we face.
The government can take much more meaningful and needed action to combat the housing crisis, as well as the other crises we are facing that all contribute to the overall cost of living crisis.
Expanding initiatives and grants to build affordable social housing and implementing vacancy taxes on landlords who own vacant properties are just two examples of action the government could take to address the housing crisis at its roots. Creating programs that ensure grocery prices stay low and incentivizing businesses to pay a living wage are all steps that could be taken to address the current cost of living crisis.
Expanding initiatives and grants to build affordable social housing and implementing vacancy taxes on landlords who own vacant properties are just two examples of action the government could take to address the housing crisis at its roots.
By enacting the cap on international students, the government wrongly reinforces the idea that international students are the problem. Sadly, this could contribute to fostering contempt for and prejudice towards international students. Many citizens may feel resentment towards these students and create a negative environment for them to live in.
Although Justin Trudeau has stated that international students aren't the problem numerous times, the implementation of the cap contradicts this.
The cap can also prevent family members from being with each other. For example, a current international student may have a sibling who wants to attend university with them. However, because of the restriction, it may now be impossible for that international student to attend university with their sibling abroad. This can contribute to increase the isolation international students feel from being away from family.
Although the government has proposed many benefits to the cap on international students, it not only falsely blames international students for the housing crisis, it will also fail to provide any meaningful relief to the crisis. As such, the move by the federal government is a two-fold blunder that does not effectively serve its own citizens and reinforces a xenophobic narrative. Domestic and international students and Canadian citizens as a whole deserve much better from the government.
Since May 1, a group of 100 tenants from Stoney Creek towers in Hamilton’s east end have been protesting proposed rent increases and uncompleted repairs in their apartment complex.
Stoney Creek towers is a four building, 618-unit complex owned by InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust and managed by CLV group.
The rent strike demonstrates ongoing issues with housing in Hamilton and across Ontario.
A 2018 report from the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario found that rent is unaffordable for nearly half of all Ontario tenants.
Hamilton has experienced significant rent increases in recent years. The average cost of rent in Hamilton has increased at double the rate of inflation since 2012.
Rent increases come as a result of both rising house prices and decreasing rental vacancy rates, according to a 2017 report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. As a result of increased demand, apartments are more expensive and harder to find.
“Because of the real estate situation, rent is going up everywhere, people from Toronto and Mississauga are choosing to move here,” said Syed, a tenant at Stoney Creek Towers.
Despite higher rent, living conditions often remain the same. Many low to medium income renters across Hamilton experience substandard living conditions.
According to a study of low to medium renters across Hamilton conducted by Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, 43 per cent of tenants across Hamilton reported a lack of heating in the winter.
Unresponsive landlords are also common across Hamilton. Fifty-nine per cent of tenants surveyed by ACORN reported having problems getting their landlords to conduct repairs.
According to Sarah Wahab, a volunteer with the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network, leaving units in disrepair is an intentional strategy to push current tenants out so that the landlord can increase rent for new tenants.
The Ontario rent increase guideline restricts the amount that rent can be increased on occupied units each year. However, there is no rent control on empty units.
“The landlord will neglect repairs in order to push the tenant out of the unit so that they can raise the rent for the next tenant that comes in,” said Wahab.
Tenants living in Stoney Creek towers say that long-standing repairs in their units are often left uncompleted.
The Stoney Creek Towers website states that, “24-hour professional maintenance staff are just a phone call away”. However Rita*, a resident at Stoney Creek Towers, found the property management to be difficult to access and unresponsive to requests.
When Rita experienced structural problems in her unit, she had to call multiple times over the course of a week before anybody came. After three or four visits over the course of a month, it was finally determined that there was an underlying problem.
Syed says that his apartment building has an ongoing bedbug problem. He also identified issues with plumbing, lighting and mold in the building.
According to Syed, rent for new tenants is often double what current tenants pay.
CLV group makes repairs to units before renting them out to new tenants. However, Syed says that these repairs are minor. Flooring and baseboards are replaced, and the apartment gets a new set of paint. However, the underlying structural issues remain.
The Ontario rent increase guideline protects tenants from sharp rent increases. The guideline limits the amount that a landlord can increase tenants’ rent in a year. In 2018 the maximum rent increase was 1.8 per cent.
In order to increase the rent on occupied units beyond the 1.8 per cent limit, landlords can apply to the Landlord Tenant Board for a rent increase above the guideline.
If a landlord can demonstrate that significant repair, renovation or replacement has been undertaken in the building, they are eligible for an Above Guideline Increase, which allows rent to be increased beyond the yearly limit.
CLV has applied to the Hamilton landlord tenant board to be approved for a rent hike of 9.6 per cent over the next two years.
According to Roseanne MacDonald-Holtman, community relations manager for CLV, investments have been made to improve heating, air exhaust and plumping, among other repairs.
However, tenants at Stoney Creek towers say the repairs have been primarily cosmetic and have not adequately addressed underlying structural issues.
“CLV is doing superficial work that's completely cosmetic, just to attract newer tenants,” said Syed. “Painting the lobby, putting in a fake fireplace that's completely digital, it doesn't even give off heat, it gets you to think are they really thinking about the tenants?”
Furthermore, if approved, the AGI increase would make rent unaffordable for many of the current residents at Stoney Creek towers.
According to Wahab, the Stoney Creek towers buildings are home to a lot of immigrants, poor people and people with disabilities.
“The issue is that this issue in Hamilton, the demographic cannot afford this price rate,” said Syed.
To demand that CLV drops the AGI and does repairs in all the units, tenants in the Stoney Creek towers began a rent strike.
According to Wahab, a rent strike involves withholding rent. Tenants set their rent aside with the understanding that they will pay it back once the landlord agrees to the demands.
By engaging in the rent strike, tenants aim not only to appeal to their landlord and property manager, but also to the general public.
“Everybody should know what is going on in the apartment,” said Rita. “People will not know what is going on until people open their mouths.”
Tenants, supported by HTSN, have been engaging in campaigns and rallies to engage their landlord and property management company over the course of the campaign.
Rent strikes have been a protesting tactic since the early 1800s. One of the largest rent strikes occurred in New York city in 1907, and led to the establishment of rent control.
More recently, tenants in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood engaged in a three month long rent strike to protest a proposed AGI increase and unfilled work orders in their buildings. Their efforts paid off when the landlord withdrew their AGI application in August 2017.
So far in Stoney Creek, neither CLV nor REIT has agreed to meet with the tenants to negotiate. Instead, Wahab says that they are engaging in a “campaign of harassment”.
On Sept. 12, CLV staff posted letters to tenants’ doors stating that loitering was not permitted in the lobby, stairwells, or common areas. Soon afterwards, CLV group erected walls in the lobbies of two Stoney Creek buildings that block access to meeting spaces. According to the HTSN blog, this is meant to prevent tenants from holding meetings in their building lobbies.
According to MacDonald-Holtman on behalf of CLV, the walls were part of a lobby renovation.
“When complete, residents will benefit from upgraded facilities and services,” stated MacDonald-Holtman in an email.
On Oct. 9, rent strikers received eviction notices. According to Wahab, this is a strategy to scare people into not going on rent strike.
Tenants are supported by lawyers from the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and have raised money to cover the cost of potential filing fees. Over the course of the campaign, nobody on rent strike has been evicted.
The Landlord Tenant Board will decide whether or not to approve the AGI in a meeting Nov. 1-2. For the tenants in Stoney Creek Towers, the issues go beyond just money.
Tenants will continue to organize, regardless of the outcome.
“We're a part of this community,” said Syed. “We've been part of this community, and we're trying to protect this community and the people coming into it.”
* Names have been changed
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