Ottawa says it’s talking to provinces, territories and other key partners to address student housing shortage.
Incoming George Brown international student Harshal Bhasgauri says he’s dipped into his family’s savings in India to pay months of rent in advance just to get a shot at finding a place to live in Toronto for the school year.
Even then, he says the past four months of searching for housing were filled with unanswered and rejected rental applications, leaving him wondering why he was invited to come to Canada if there was no housing available. “I am always moments away from like a mental breakdown, just from the stress of wondering if I’m going to be homeless,” said Bhasgauri, 24.
“While it’s super beneficial for Canada to bring immigrants, and it gives people from other countries a chance to experience a first-world country … I think at some point this country needs to realize that they’re just going one step forward and two steps back.”
Would you share a single room with 3 other people? The influx of international students has been increasing steadily. A record 550,150 international student study permits were issued last year, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). That’s a 75 per cent increase from just five years ago.
Experts note there’s currently no cap on the number of students coming here, and no requirement by provincial or federal governments to make schools build corresponding housing. The IRCC says it’s reviewing its international student program, with the federal housing minister saying Monday the federal government is considering a cap on the number of international students to ease the pressure on the housing market.
But advocates say more needs to be done at all levels to not only build more housing for international students, but to examine the incentives schools have to bring students to Canada in the first place.
Schools benefit from international students
Steve Pomeroy, a senior research fellow for the Centre for Urban Research and Education at Carleton University, pointed to the federal government’s growth in study permit approvals even as provinces gradually cut back on post-secondary funding throughout the years. He says this has prompted post-secondary institutions to use international students as a way to make up for lost revenue. “You can spread the blame around,” said Pomeroy. Mateusz Salmassi, the director of advocacy for the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), says the organization has heard from international students like Bhasguari who say they were asked to pay months or even a year’s worth of rent in advance to secure a unit. He says some students shared stories of living in cramped and unsafe housing that was in disrepair, while others said they had to live in their cars because they couldn’t find anywhere else to live. According to Salmassi, who is himself an international student from the United States, the lengths these students go to in order to find housing compromises the whole point of immigrating to Canada in the first place, especially because he says they pay much more in tuition fees than domestic students.
“If students have unstable enough housing and can’t afford housing, their ability to get to graduation is put at risk,” he said.
Racialized students can face discrimination
According to IRCC data from 2023, the bulk of international students came from China, Nigeria, the Philippines and India, with the latter comprising about 40 per cent of all study permits granted.
Tania Das Gupta, a gender, sexuality and women’s studies professor at York University who specializes in immigration, says that because international students are usually racialized, discrimination and racism on the part of landlords can make it even harder for this group to find housing.
“Instead of blaming them for their own situation, I think we need to focus on the institutions … that are benefiting from the revenues that they’re paying,” said Das Gupta.
Source: cbc.ca/news
Friday, May 1, 2026
