Canada’s rental crisis: The search for an affordable home (Marketplace)

♪ The high cost of housing. We the people have the power! It is a

crisis

that affects the entire country and has no easy solution. If you drop it right now, everything will fall. Wow, I... I... I mean, you have little kids. -Yeah. Tenants were worried about how to keep a roof over their heads. We go behind closed doors to show you the shocking truth. It is deplorable that someone has to live in those conditions. I begged and begged them to transfer me. Nothing. ♪ Canada is in a

rental

crisis

. Then, we'll hit the streets of Vancouver and Toronto. -Should we start? -Let's start the hunt.

Testing Canada's two most expensive cities in

search

of an

affordable

place to live. How hard can it be? But first... Unity and community! Unity and community! These Toronto tenants are angry and fed up. We the people have the power! We the people have the power! Let's hear it from the experiences of our tenants here. They are among the most vulnerable. Older people, new immigrants, students, people with disabilities. I do this on behalf of women like me, women my age, my race. We don't feel safe here. We are not here for luxury

home

s. We are here only for safe and

affordable

housing.

We recently have a lot of roaches in our unit. That's the main concern I have. ACORN is an independent organization of low- and moderate-income people and helps renters organize protests, as many in this city can't get a secure

rental

or feel trapped in their current one. I have no choice. I have to go back next week. Ask Michael Regan. -This is my unit right here. - Okay, let's go in. He invites us into his apartment for a revealing look at the city's rental crisis. - This is my unit. - Oh, wow. This is the place he calls

home

.

It's very different from what the hallway looks like, isn't it? - This is... - That's crazy. From the ruined bathroom... to the mold... and the water damage. Michael says his biggest problem started with a crack in the foundation that let water into his unit about two years ago. There are also pests. I can see dead bed bugs everywhere. Yes. And... And you said there were cockroaches too. Yes, there were, but they are no longer here. I already suffer from depression and everything. -Yeah. So, having to live like this, my depression reached a point where I was hospitalized twice... [voice breaking...because of it.

It's emotional. I-- I-- I did... everything and everything I could to not be here. I would just go to the mall and stay there and try to come here just to try to sleep. If I was getting any sleep, it was... I was going through hell. And... and... and it was... I felt like no one cared. Michael is on welfare, but with city rents so high and vacancy rates so low, he feels trapped and often alone. He had friends who... Uh, didn't want to come here because they were afraid of the... the bed bugs. So are you alone when you're here?

More or less, yes. Me and my television. His belongings are piled in the center of the room in the hope that the building will make good on its promise of repairs. They tell him: "One more week." The building's owners, Medallion Corporation, acknowledged the challenges in the rental market, but told Marketplace that the issues raised are specific to Michael and that they cannot share more due to tenant privacy. And I... I... I begged and begged them to move me. Nothing. They wouldn't. It's deplorable that someone has to live in those conditions, I think, yes, in Canada, yes.

Ren Thomas is an associate professor of planning at Dalhousie University. He is currently writing a book on nonprofit housing. Why is it so difficult to find affordable rentals in Canada? We haven't really focused on rental construction in a long time. We have also been losing many rentals over the years. So we, you know, lose rentals due to conversions, redevelopment, and they just don't get replaced. Um, and that's also been a huge factor. So not only are we not building enough, we're not even preserving what we have. Do you find it unfair that so many Canadians can't afford to rent in Canada's largest cities?

Oh yeah. I mean, I think it's... I think it's terrible. I mean, you need that diversity, and that's what makes our great cities great: we have, you know, different people and different jobs available. Government agencies like the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) say housing should cost no more than 30% of a person's pre-tax income. $60,000 a year is slightly higher than the average salary in Canada. It means a budget of $1,500 per month for rent. That price is where our test begins. 250 square feet for $1,500. They tell us it's a good business. But for the 15 million Canadians earning less than $60,000, this place would not be considered affordable.

So, we continue

search

ing. In Toronto, this is what $1,200 for about 200 square feet looks like. Let's try it again. Next is Vancouver. For $1,000 a month, this room in a condo seems like a good deal. But... You get this room and you share the place with a whole family. People are clearly resorting to whatever it takes to, you know, pay the rent. Ren refers to this as a basic housing need: living in a home that is unaffordable and undersized or in need of repairs. This is the situation across the country for one in ten households, most of them renters.

So much attention has been paid to the property that, to be completely honest, we are actually ignoring the problems that tenants face. -Are we ignoring them? -Yeah. They're... It's not really visible. A problem like homelessness is quite visible. And it's annoying for most people, but tenants, you know, can't pay their rent, it's not really that visible. This is what being excluded from the price can look like. In fact, people are camping in their RVs because rent is so unaffordable in this city. We just saw this, which looks like a structure on top of the back of a truck. -Hello.

What is your name? -Hey, I'm Chris. Chris, come down if you don't mind. When did you build it? It's been six, seven months now. So you've been living here for six or seven months? Yes. But it was a nice summer. - -Can you take me there with just my iPhone and show me a little bit of, like, uh... -If you don't mind... -I can... I can jump. Chris Kazmierczak says he works in construction and builds houses in Vancouver. Alright, here we go. Well. It's a little complicated, but... There you go, there you go... bring your laptop here. - Yes. - You have your food.

The irony is that he can't afford it, so he built this makeshift house. So this... is better than paying rent? - No. - But... but for what I'm willing to spend, it's... yes. Good? At the prices, yes, it's... it's... it's the only option if I want to make enough money to... not be broke when I'm old. Chris's situation is not unique. As we drive around Vancouver, we see people choosing to live in RVs everywhere. It's... it's all that... it all comes down to affordability. From RVs to tents lining some downtown streets and parks, it's a dire situation, in part caused by rising rental prices.

Today, in Vancouver, to comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment, your salary must be about $109,000. And $98,000 in Toronto. It's not just these two cities. In London, Ontario, a one-bedroom room costs almost $1,800. Take a look around the country. Just over $1,600 in Montreal. In Calgary, around $1,500. In Halifax, an average one-bedroom apartment costs almost $2,000. So where does that leave those who earn less? They say that housing is a human right. But we're about to show you just how bad things can get. This is your Market. Canadians struggle to find affordable places to rent. Accommodation should cost no more than 30% of your income.

But those who work full time and earn minimum wage earn about $2,300 a month, leaving them with a budget of about $700 for rent. That's why we're testing it in Toronto and Vancouver to see firsthand where tenants end up. Next, a basement apartment that costs $750. See what living on minimum wage, and possibly more, could mean for your privacy. That's how it is. Behind this curtain. We also detect possible security problems. That's the smoke detector. Well, it's not safe for anyone to live in this type of situation where there is no smoke alarm, so there are a lot of safety issues.

In this downtown Toronto home, the basement apartment looks freshly renovated. Yes Yes Yes Yes. Yes. So for $700 a month you can get a bed next to a stranger. There is obviously a security risk. You don't know this person, now you're sharing a space with them, you're a foot away from their bed, like you have no security, you have no privacy, so that... That's a real problem... that It's a real problem. Back out West, things are no better in Vancouver. Inside this house... ...there is visible damage. As a tenant shows us around... ...it quickly becomes clear... Yes, upstairs. ...there are many tenants living here.

Cheap but crowded. At $650 per person, the owner could earn about $8,000 a month. While the young tenants sleep in rows of beds like this one. In 2019, the Canadian government declared housing a human right in Canada. Why does housing have to be a right in this country? Because without considering housing as a right, we will have people who continually remain on the sidelines. Among them, children and women, warns Lisa Rupert. There are 21 income-based rental housing units. She is the Vice President of Housing and Violence Prevention for the YWCA Metro Vancouver. We've had requests from people who live in tents, who live in their cars.

Many of them practice sofa-surfing. Being excluded from your community comes at a high cost. What is the impact on children? Children are losing their schools, their friends, their extracurricular activities, and not just once, but over and over again. That affects them emotionally, it affects them academically, and I have seen children devastated by it, I have seen children suicidal by it. -You have seen suicidal children. - Suicidal ideation. Because they have to go again. After having left so many times and finally being able to rebuild a little. Do you think lives are at risk because some women can't find an affordable place to rent? -I absolutely believe it. - Actually?

And not only because they cannot afford to rent an affordable place, but also because of the constant upheaval in their lives. Lisa says the YWCA offers women fleeing violence a home where rent is based on income, giving them space to pursue their dreams. But safe housing must come first. Canada needs to have an adequate social safety net, and right now our social safety net on housing is broken. 25 kilometers west of Toronto, this Mississauga resort looks nice. But some tenants tell us that lack of repairs and rodents are a real problem. Meet Julia Jezek. Hi Travis from Marketplace.

I heard you have some problems. We can enter? - Yes, you can come in. - Perfect. She lives here with her two children. They are six and four years old. That's a big hole. Yes, it fell in the middle of the night. And every day it falls more. And I can also see some errors here. Oh, I have so many cockroaches. Cockroach. That's a cockroach over there. And mice. This seems to be going down as well. Yes, I know, if you drop it right now, everything will fall. -Wow. I mean, you have little kids. Yes. Julia says she cares about her children and says she asked her superintendent for reparations last fall.

The owner, Solmar Builders, tells us that they had no idea about the problems in Julia's unit and that they cannot come in to make repairs until she completes a work order. There are also problems in the kitchen. Can we go in there and see? - Yes, good. Um... the kitchen is infested with cockroaches. -Yeah. -Wow. If you look... There are dead cockroaches everywhere, in my microwave. And this is... this is what you can afford. E-- It costs $1,600, two floors. -1,600 dollars. -Two floors. Go on, Kijiji, $1,600 for a one-bedroom basement apartment. -And you have looked. I've looked, I've looked, I've been searching.

How do you explain this to children? -Nothing for me. No. They think they are rich because they have toys. -Yeah. -My daughter walks around, she thinks... she thinks she is rich. If she only knew. It's hard. It's so hard, it's... it's the worst thing in the world. You want to be the best father possible... but in this country they make it difficult. ♪ Julia says that she has lived in the complex for many years and admits that she is several months behind on rent. But experts say safety issues should not be ignored. Still, minimum health and safety requirements, and we havea National Building Code and we have all these requirements that, you know, building owners have to meet.

Clearly, there are some major health risks. You can see the water dripping,...yes, there are safety issues with the children that live there, there are health issues. I see you're getting a little emotional. Why is that? It's just sad to see that, um... to think about someone who lives there, but... particularly to see children in that situation. So what is the solution? If cooperatives are an answer, why don't some provinces cooperate? The solutions are radically different. We have to change the dynamics of the rental market in Canada, so that it serves people and not investors. Coming soon to your Marketplace.

This is your Market. Rents are unaffordable and Canadians are running out of options. It's like talking to a brick wall with these people. But what can sometimes drive change? The tenants gather. Do you remember Miguel? After he spoke and our cameras visited him, the property management did it again as well. I know you've been going through some tough times for a while. -Yeah. Yes. Tell me what difference does it make now to have a place you can call home? It just... it just makes me feel like I'm... like I'm human again. I... I can sleep in my own bed, I can...

I'm happier, I can go out, I can do whatever, people will come. It's... it's just... it's a world of difference. -So, do you have hope? -I have hope. Yes. Yes. -It must be a pleasant feeling. -Yes it is. Very good. And I thank you and ACORN for everything you have done for me. Michael is moving forward, but many others remain stagnant. It is absolutely a rental crisis in Canada, and particularly in larger urban centres. Co-operative housing like this should be part of the solution, says Tom Armstrong, executive director of the British Columbia Co-operative Housing Federation. Someone who moves into a cooperative is both an owner and a tenant, because he or she owns the association that owns the home.

So you're not moving into a co-op for a return on your investment, you're moving into safe, affordable long-term housing. When you compare what's happening here in B.C. to, say, Ontario, what would you say is the difference and what would you say maybe lessons can be learned? The problems in Vancouver and Toronto and... and... and surrounding areas are very similar. The solutions are radically different. BC. is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to preserve and build new cooperatives. But in Ontario, that investment isn't happening. This provincial government is investing on a scale of intervention not seen anywhere else in the country.

And that's what has to happen, we have to change the dynamics of the rental market in Canada, so that it serves the people and not the investors. Tom shows us. Alright, here we are. -Welcome. -Wow! This is big. It is a three-bedroom apartment, about 1,000 square feet. The rent, well, that depends. So we need some rentals at the higher end of the range, uh, for the co-op in order to create more affordable housing for lower income people. Since rent is income dependent, a member typically pays between $3,000 and $1,700. And some as low as $660, and even less for a two-bedroom or one-bedroom. -Here is our patio terrace. -No way!

After an initial investment from the government, a cooperative is on its way to becoming self-sufficient, offering many people a beautiful place to call home. What co-op members understand when joining the co-op is that the co-op has a mission to provide affordable housing. So you have disposable income to put food on the table, buy medicine, send your kids to summer camp, live a meaningful life in a community.