With the Toronto housing market continuing to soar, single individuals including students, newcomers, and seniors, turn to rooming housing as their most affordable option. Multi-tenant (rooming) houses are defined as a building where four or more rooms are separately rented with tenants sharing kitchen and/or bathroom facilities without living together as a single household, have operated in the shadows. In the past, this type of illegal housing was outside of the legal eye, leading to unestablished rights for tenants and landlords.
To regulate such housing and improve living conditions, the City of Toronto introduced a multi-tenant rooming framework into effect as of March, 31 2024. The new regulatory framework enforces property owners to follow licensing requirements and guidelines that uphold standards to ensure the healthy and safe livelihood of all tenants. Former mayor John Tory has noted that, since 2011, at least 14 people have died in rooming house fires whereas only two people have died in such fires in legal and regulated rooming houses. Acknowledging the existence of rooming houses by the city is a step forward in creating regulations to alleviate the struggles tenants face to find affordable and safe housing.
Recognizing the importance of protecting affordable housing, the City of Toronto is developing a renovation program set to launch in Spring 2024 for landlords to renovate and meet the standards set in place. The program will provide funding and financial incentives to eligible property owners to address costs related to improving the safety and building conditions for tenants.
There are also growing concerns of property owners deciding to leave the rooming business because of the strict requirements that have to be followed. Not to mention, the City’s six room cap on the amount of rooms that can be rented is a worry in Scarborough, Etobicoke, and North York as owners of these properties may decide to leave the business or continue operations underground. Struggling tenants with low incomes depend on multi-tenant housing to survive in a city that is becoming less affordable. Therefore, the City of Toronto aims to work closely with landlords to educate them and find ways to comply with the new regulatory framework.
