Item - 2020.PH19.10

The Planning and Housing Committee:

1.  Directed the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat and any other appropriate staff to meet with the city's post-secondary institutions to discuss ways to work co-operatively to ensure an adequate supply of safe and legal housing for students, and to report back to the Planning and Housing Committee on the outcome of those discussions.

A lack of housing for students appears to be contributing to the number of illegal rooming houses in areas such as North York. This is especially a problem in places where land speculators frequently create unsafe and illegal housing as a way to maximize revenue from a property, without the cost of upgrading it, while they are waiting to sell it to a builder or developer who will tear it down. 

Students come to Toronto from around the world for the excellent education offered at its colleges and universities. Perhaps it is time for these institutions to take a greater role in making sure these students - many of whom are here without family members to make sure they are properly housed - are in safe situations.