Housing for students in Ottawa is becoming less affordable, study finds

Many students come to Ottawa to attend one of the city’s institutions, with the perks of living in the Nation’s capital. But they often are straddled with high costs and an uncertain housing situation.

The University of Ottawa Students’ Union officially released its 2024-25 Student Housing Caucus Report in May, with over 600 responses from students.  

James Adair, who was running to be a member of the students’ union board, came up with the idea for the survey.

“I had recently read some books about the Canadian housing crisis, and I started looking into the student housing crisis and I saw there was little literature about it,” Adair said. “I thought it would be interesting to lead a research report on that and have the UOttawa student union advocate on these issues with hard data backing it.”

The survey results were funnelled into a report designed to showcase student housing struggles. Rent, utility costs, relationships with landlords and safety and quality of life were some of the most significant issues identified.

“I think the issue is the cost,” Adair said. “Obviously, the cost is downstream with a lot of issues, but we asked students what the biggest issue was and they said the cost.”

According to the report, the average rent for UOttawa students living off campus is $926.67 a month. Students living in properties owned by corporate landlords pay an average rent of $1,019.60. This is notably based on what individual students were paying, and does not represent the cost of the entire unit rented.

Adair says he’s especially shocked by how much money landlords make on units with larger numbers of tenants.

“We asked what each individual paid, and when you add it all up with seven-person apartments and everyone is paying like $700 every month. It’s crazy that there’s so much money those landlords are getting,” Adair said.

This was especially apparent when, as the report pointed out, many students don’t even know their roommates before moving in.

The housing report tackled other issues such as home quality, safety and the overall relationship between tenants and landlords. While many students were mostly satisfied with where they were living, there were still responses that painted bleak pictures.

“The apartment is crooked in every aspect,” a surveyed student said about the state of their unit. “If I put a ball on the floor, it will roll down it. The ground is very uneven; it has peaks and valleys. Sometimes I feel like a sailor or something on a moving boat.”

Many students agreed that overall their living situation caused stress that, in many cases, hurt their academics.

“Since [landlords] know they're in a better position than us, they abuse,” one student surveyed said. “They don't take care of the housing. Housing is scarce, and on that basis, if there's a problem and you tell them, they instantly threaten to kick you out at the end of the month.”

Adair said he feels like politicians could work more quickly to fix the problem.

“I think we have accepted a model of housing for the past 30 to 40 years that just doesn’t work,” Adair said. “People can’t accept that there are other ways to do housing because it goes against what they know: Just let the private sector do stuff and upsell.”

Mass renoviction hits Little Italy student housing

Recent threats of mass eviction at the 101 Champagne Avenue South building in Little Italy have pushed the issue into the news lately.

The 185-unit building opened in 2016 as Envie was designed to provide housing in a location near the under-construction LRT Line 2 while still within a decent walking distance from Carleton University.

The $60 million facility was billed by parent company, Ashcroft Homes, as the “future of student housing.” 

Ashcroft Homes went into receivership in the fall of 2024. Courts ordered their buildings to be put under new management, with KSV Restructuring Inc taking over 101 Champagne Avenue South.

Jayendra Kurukulasekara moved into 101 Champagne Avenue South around the same time that Ashcroft Homes went into receivership. Right away, he noticed some similar concerns to those listed in the student housing report.

“When I came in, I noticed they weren’t keeping up with the maintenance as usual,” Kurukulasekara said of KSV. “One of the three elevators didn’t work for six months.”

Still, elevator issues would pale in comparison to the struggle that tenants of 101 Champagne Avenue South found themselves facing in the summer.

“The whole situation can be summed up with the word ‘renoviction’,” Kurukulasekara said. “It all came to a head in May when a building-wide notice was posted saying there was mould affecting 65 units. In the notice, they said that we essentially had 15 days to decide if we wanted to stay in the building or not.”

According to the volunteer-run organization RenovictionsTO, a “renoviction” is described as “when a landlord evicts a tenant by claiming they will complete major renovations (or demolish the unit or convert it to commercial use).”

“The fact they gave us such a rushed deadline to leave showed that they were trying to use it as a scare tactic,” Kurukulasekara said. 

Many of those living in the building chose to stay, knowing that the mould wasn’t affecting their units. The report about mould was vague about the type, but it did say that the second floor was the main problem area. Many of those living there were relocated to other rooms.

But this wasn’t the end of the issues for tenants.

“On the 23rd of July, they said they’d be going to court on the 30th of July, requesting the Superior Court grant the sale of the building,” Kurukulasekara said. “One of the conditions of the sale was that the new buyer required tenants to completely vacate the building by August 31.”

Kurukulasekara said that the regular requirement per the Landlord and Tenant Board is to give a four-month notice, not one month like KSV had planned.

“There are many students out of Ottawa right now,” Kurukulasekara said. “Most of them wouldn’t even be back on time to get their things moved. We felt it was unfair on multiple grounds, so we banded together and decided to get involved in the legal proceedings.”

The tenants of the Envie Student building now have a lawyer representing them, and proceedings are ongoing. Kurukulasekara says that the conditions for the buyers have changed slightly, with the deadline to vacate the building now moving to September. 

“What we want to make sure happens at the very least is that we get the right to return at the same price,” Kurukulasekara said. 

For James Adair, stories like these are why he and the housing caucus want to push for real change to the student housing market.

“The biggest issue for students is that there is no price stability in the market because students are moving so often,” Adair said. “Knowing that, landlords will often try to get you to incentivize you to leave early or will not renew the lease because they know they can raise the price.”

Adair says that controlling rent and limiting increases between tenancies could be key to fixing the student housing crisis.

“Pro-tenant rights policies would be huge for student housing specifically, stabilizing prices and ensuring that students aren’t being forced out of their homes early so that landlords can raise rent.”