Brampton's Housing Crisis Explained (image-X/NMBCanada)

The housing crisis in Canada’s Brampton city has been a topic of debate for a while now. The debilitating crisis leads to unaffordable rentals that force students, many of them Indians, to live in unsafe and often illegal conditions in the country.

Study permit applications from Indians to pursue higher education in the country have witnessed a sharp dip by over 15 percent in 2023 as compared to 2022, due to bilateral tensions and housing affordability.

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Brampton residents protested against the illegal rooming houses, alleging that they put renters at risk and made the neighbourhood unsafe. They demanded the federal and provincial governments combat exploitative landlords. Residents complained that nearly 30 percent of the houses on her street have turned into rentals and illegal rooming houses, as per a CBC report.

The locals complained that nearly 20 students were residing in a neighbouring house for over a year and often were loud at night.

Several residents also expressed their support for the Residential Rental Licensing Program (RRLP) in Brampton, which began in January with the aim to crackdown on rental units that violate health and safety rules.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said that the project led to over 4,700 home inspections and more than 600 penalty notices, reported CBC. Brown said that some of the rental units pose fire safety hazards that do not meet ventilation requirements.

Under the licensing program, landlords who own rental properties with up to four units are required to register for a special business license at a yearly cost of $300 per unit. They are also required to agree to random health, safety, and property standard inspections undertaken by Brampton’s enforcement department.

Some of the landlords criticised the project, claiming that it was expensive, and made them do paperwork. They also said that often times, the tenants are to blame for the issues flagged by the city inspectors and urged for the city to focus more on regulating tenants than landlords.

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Members of the Brampton Home Providers Association (BHPA) protested against the city mayor, who called the former a “slum landlord association.”

Reportedly, the city received 1,577 complaints about unregistered and illegal basement apartments (second units), and another 667 complaints about illegal lodging houses in 2019, according to Brampton’s bylaw department.