Why are rooming houses important?
Rooming houses are the cheapest form of permanent accommodation currently available in Toronto. Rents average about $400-$450 a month. Those who cannot afford a room in a rooming house, or who are evicted from a rooming house because they cannot pay the rent generally have to go to a hostel. (This puts an added burden on the city, because housing people in hostels costs about $1,200 per person per month.) Rooming houses are an essential form of housing for low-income people. They constitute the bottom rung of the housing ladder. If they disappear, it will become even harder for low-income people to remain on the ladder, let alone climb it. In other words, the fewer rooms that are available in rooming houses in Toronto, the greater the number of people who will fill the hostels and live on the streets. The decline in the numbers of rooming houses in Toronto has occurred at the same time as an increase in homelessness.
