The latest data from RentFaster, a popular Canadian rental listings website, shows that the average monthly price for a two-bedroom apartment, condo, townhouse, maisonette or townhouse topped $2,000 per month for the first time this spring. reaching nearly $2,100 by mid-summer. Meanwhile, the number of two-bedroom units available is now about half of what was available last summer — about 130 listings compared to last summer’s 310 listings. CBC News spoke to three Ottawa residents looking for a place to rent about the challenges they face.
Grace Salomonie: Too expensive without roommates
For Grace Salomonie, a 21-year-old professional, navigating the rental market means tough choices. Salomonie hoped to find a part of a bedroom all to herself. She wants a short commute to her office downtown, where she works to save enough money to go back to school and one day own her own home. But so far, Salamonie hasn’t been able to come up with anything within her $1,200 budget. “I want to invest in my future,” he said. “But with the current market in Ottawa, I’m not sure I could have the future I dream of or own my own home.” She already had to change her housing plan to roommates, she said. But she worries that as she gets older, she won’t be able to start on her own. The current rental options available to her would eat up a large portion of her income, leaving little room for any savings, Salomonie said. “It was very, very expensive,” he lamented.
Erin Hobson: Bid 3 times
Erin Hobson, 39, and her husband lost out to competing offers from other tenants three times. “It’s also extremely frustrating because you want to set yourself and your wife and your families up and everything to be successful for the future,” he said of their plan to move into a two-bedroom unit. “We’re doing our best, but we’re not there yet.” As of 2020, the couple lives in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Centretown, where they store a canoe above their bed to save space. They are trying to find a two-bedroom unit with outdoor space and a parking space somewhere in the $1,500 to $3,000 per month price range.
Ottawa resident says ‘frustrating’ apartment search has life on hold
Erin Hobson, 39, says she and her husband have been looking for a bigger apartment since December 2020 and have been outbid by other prospective tenants several times. Hobson said she’s lucky to work on a tighter budget, as both she and her husband work full-time. After seeing the apartments, Hobson said she was discouraged by how hard it is to find reasonably priced units and was surprised to be outbid time and time again. Hobson said she’s considering holding off on looking for a bigger place, even if it means delaying plans like getting a dog or possibly having children in the near future. Peggy Rafter said she spends time every day looking for a new home, but has been unable to find anything within her tight budget. (Submitted by Peggy Rafter)
Peggy Rafter: Looming Eviction and Homelessness
Peggy Rafter is among about a dozen tenants facing eviction from Manor Village in Nepean, where low-rent townhouses are slated for renovation to make way for upgraded student housing. The pensioner has called her subsidized two-bedroom townhouse home for the past 30 years but has been told to vacate by the end of September. “It’s scary,” he said. “I’ll probably end up in a shelter, like a few other people from here.” Rafter said she’s looking for a new place to live every day, but hasn’t found anything comparable to her home that’s also within her budget. She currently pays less than $1,200 a month for her unit, which includes a finished basement and a yard — all with utilities. So far, any similar units she’s found in the city have been over $2,000 a month, well beyond her budget. “This is impossible for me or the other tenants here to be able to afford,” he said. Rafter is working with the local chapter of ACORN Canada, a community social justice organization, to fight the eviction notice. She and the other tenants are awaiting a hearing date with the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board, which adjudicates rent disputes. Rafter said her situation is not unique and she would like to see more action to protect low-income people from rising housing costs, including rent and vacancy control.
Finding affordable units is ‘very impossible’
The city’s undersupply of rental housing is just one of the factors contributing to rising rents, said Meg McCallum, interim executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa.
McCallum said about 34 per cent of households in Ottawa are rentals, but less than half of those units are affordable.
“There’s not enough rental inventory to begin with. And when people are looking for affordable homes, there’s so much competition,” he said.
Newer units are also priced higher to account for rising construction and operating costs.
Ironically, one of the measures the Bank of Canada has used to tame inflation appears to be exacerbating the problem: According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, rising interest rates are forcing more people to forgo home purchases, opting instead for of this to rent.
The pressure is especially hard on low-income families, McCallum said.
“There is almost zero vacancy for affordable housing,” he said.
“For someone who is working minimum wage or living on a pension or Ontario Works or receiving Ontario Disability Support payments, trying to find something that you can afford is almost impossible.”
McCallum said a return to “normal” rates isn’t enough, pointing out that even before the pandemic, the city was already facing a housing and homelessness emergency.
“We need to change the system, stop doing things the way we’re doing them and use the best practices that we can see across the country and internationally to really make some changes.”
