Lack of hot water, no gas, no locks on doors, mould and active wasp’s nests: these are just some of the conditions students in Ottawa say they have had to contend with in their off campus housing.
Ottawa has a very large student population, there being three major universities in the city, as well as several colleges in the area. With so many students, it is hard for the schools to provide everyone with housing. Carleton University, for example, claims its waiting list for on-campus housing currently stands at more than 480 students.
One international student living in Centretown off Somerset Street — who did not want to be identified — explains that “we have no other option, I have literally no idea where I am, I’ve moved half way across the world to be here, and my house is a dump!
“I feel like my landlord is taking me for a fool. I haven’t had any hot water for weeks, I have to go to friends’ houses to shower and we have no locks on any of the doors so anybody could get in, I feel really unsafe,” she explained. “But I have nowhere else and what we have is better than nothing,I guess.”
The Residential Tenancy Act of Ontario states that landlords must not withhold any vital service that is part of the tenant agreement and therefore landlords not providing students with basic needs such as gas and electricity are in breach of their contract.
A spokesperson for City of Ottawa Housing explained:“In addition to the Province’s Residential Tenancies Act, the city’s Property Standards By-Law protects tenants by providing standards under which the properties are to be maintained. We aim to look after the tenants as best we can”
For many students, moving to university is their first time living away from home. They know very little about the property market to make well-informed decisions about housing.
One landlord — who also did not want to be identified — rents out many properties around the Centretown area believes the problem is partly down to the students themselves.
“The problem is that students don’t ask the right questions,” he said. “They aren’t well enough prepared, and this is obvious. I don’t in any way condone the behaviour of some of these landlords, but the students are setting themselves up for disaster because landlords can take advantage.”
Scott, a student at the University of Ottawa — who didn’t reveal his last name – explains: “I thought I was going to find living away from home really difficult, but I am really enjoying the independence and looking out for myself,” he says. “I had a few hiccups with housing and finding somewhere to live, I’ve never moved home in my life, but I am trying my best to settle in.”
While many of the students living in off-campus housing are in contact with their landlords, there are still students — like the student living off Somerset Street — living in inhospitable environments around Centretown who haven’t heard from their landlords in weeks and just have to make do with what they have.
“I haven’t actually met my landlord. I just get files posted to me or builders just show up without warning,” she says.
“It’s not a very good way to welcome me to Ottawa. I do love it here, the city is unbelievably beautiful, but I feel like I have been abandoned, and more often than not I wish I’d never even come out here in the first place.”