International student pounded the pavement and crashed on a couch on path to coveted room in Thunder Bay
Aakash Chakor of Lakehead University says he's not alone in scrambling to find housing before school starts
Aakash Chakor figured it wouldn't be hard to find a place to live in Thunder Bay when he arrived in the northwestern Ontario city from Mumbai.
Well, he was wrong.
After coming to Canada on Aug. 21, Chakor and other international students set to study at Lakehead University pounded the pavement day and night trying to find an apartment — or even a room — that would take them.
Chakor had booked a short-term Airbnb rental before landing in Thunder Bay, but with the checkout date quickly approaching and no accommodation in sight, he was getting nervous.
"Not knowing the country, not knowing the city at all, I thought I would get a place in a couple of days," he said. "I had heard that Thunder Bay is a small town, so getting a place would be easier."
Luckily, through a mutual contact, the 23-year-old ended up snagging a spot at a house along the Thunder Bay Transit route with six other people. While he is sharing a bedroom, and had to crash on the couch for two nights between when his Airbnb stay ended and the former tenant moved out, he's just relieved to have a place to live.
Lakehead International's vice-provost, James Aldridge, said the school expects to see more international students than ever this year. The influx is a national trend, with Immigration Minister Marc Miller estimating Canada is on track to host around 900,000 international students this year.
This all comes amid debates at the provincial and federal levels over what to do about the country's housing crisis. Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser has even suggested a cap on international students to ease pressures on the market.
"I expect we'll end up with somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 international students here at Lakehead University this fall," Aldridge told CBC News in an interview.
In a followup email Friday, he said Lakehead will welcome about 6,500 students — including more than 1,500 international students — to its Thunder Bay campus this fall. However, a final count of the total number of international students will be done in November, he said.
Rental cost shot up but room still snapped up
Chakor, who is completing a two-year master's program in electrical and computer engineering, said he was directed to the Lakehead University Student Union, international department and off-campus website for help finding accommodation.
"They don't directly make any arrangements between landlords and tenants, and they don't inspect any rental units, but they provide a way for international students and local students to be directed to housing opportunities in the community," Aldridge explained.
Chakor had to consider numerous aspects of housing that he wouldn't normally think about in India, like heating systems and whether a basement apartment might get too cold in a Canadian winter.
There are currently 1,120 beds for students in on-campus residences and the school plans to expand that to 1,160 for the 2024-2025 year, director of residence services Shannon Foster said in an email Friday.
The lack of on-campus housing is what pushed Chakor to search elsewhere, he said.
One place he and his friends viewed was listed at $2,200 per month, but after they called later to follow up, the rent had been raised to $2,500 due to high demand, he said. By the time they debated whether they could afford that, it was taken.
"Initially coming to Thunder Bay, I was planning to get a single room for myself, but considering the budget and the rent here, I had to lower my expectations," he said.
Beware of rental scams
One reason Chakor didn't fully start his housing search until arriving in Thunder Bay was because of rental scams, something the school also warned him about.
There are notices on Lakehead's off-campus website about red flags, like landlords asking for money in advance or not allowing prospective tenants to view a unit before signing a lease. The school also holds workshops for international students throughout the year, recognizing their lack of familiarity with the local rental market, Aldridge said.
He was aware of two international students impacted by scams last year. Each lost around $1,000.
Dania Majid, a staff lawyer for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, said the desperation for housing sometimes pushes students to let their guard down or care less about whether a unit is safe or legal.
"Some tenants are actually offering more than first and last month's rent in order to secure a rental unit in a hot market, so we can be talking thousands and thousands of dollars that are being scammed from tenants," said Majid.
The disparity between domestic and international rates for tuition also contribute to these students ending up in poorer living conditions, said Majid. Depending on their study permit, there may also be restrictions on international students' ability to work.
"They're coming here for an opportunity to better themselves through higher education, but are not actually getting the full experience because they're forced to work two or three jobs to cover the rent and cover the tuition that they're being forced to pay."
Should international student numbers be capped?
While Aldridge said he isn't surprised about Fraser's suggestion to put caps on international student numbers, he said it's important for people to remember these students didn't cause the housing crisis.
"I see a lot of blame going around, but at the same time, what would we all do if all of a sudden international students started disappearing or the numbers were less and we couldn't fill all of the jobs that we see being filled by [them]?" he asked.
Should limits on international students be put in place, Aldridge said, he hopes they're determined on a regional basis, "so that places like Thunder Bay that still have capacity are prioritized over some of the places in larger centres that are clearly bursting at the seams with newcomers."
It's a tricky balance, especially when Canada is looking to attract more immigrants to the country, with a target of 500,000 per year by 2025. A record-breaking 431,645 people became permanent residents in 2022.
International students are strong candidates for permanent residency, Aldridge said.
"You can't have it both ways. We need to fix the housing crisis without stopping the flow of students who, in my opinion at least, form some of the best immigrants that we have in Canada, because they can finish a Canadian education, they speak one of our two official languages and they provide a lot of great, great things to our communities."
The role of institutions
There's more pressures for educational institutions to offer solutions to the housing crunch. When asked whether Lakehead University may consider building its own housing developments, Aldridge said he wasn't aware of any such plans.
"Student housing has been a long-time problem," Majid said. "It's provincialwide and really the hotspots for those problems tend to be around educational institutions. They're accepting record numbers, but they haven't accounted for the fact that student housing has become much more scarce."
Creative solutions have come at the municipal level, through bylaws that allow for multi-tenant dwellings, basement apartments and other secondary suites to increase density, she said.
The province has given Thunder Bay the target of building 2,200 homes by 2031.
"Universities should be also working with municipalities and the province in terms of encouraging them to help them secure housing that will be rented at affordable rates," Majid said.
As Chakor settles in and prepares for the first day of school, he looks forward to exploring what the city has to offer, from nature trails to shops and local restaurants.
His advice for other international students who just landed? Be prepared to stay in temporary accommodations for a week or more.
"Talk to everyone. If you find a friendly face, ask them, 'Do they know someone who wants to rent out their place?' Talk to people around [campus] because they are the people who have went through the same process."
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