Illustration by Diana Bolton Family has always been complicated for me. My father left when I was three, and by the time I was 10 he had disappeared completely. I left home at 16 and struggled to obtain housing, briefly finding stability in a group home. I moved on to various households with my siblings, […] More »

Graphic by Valerie Thai Canada is in the midst of a housing crisis, and one perpetuating factor is the skyrocketing cost of rent. Rent control is a type of provincial rent regulation law that limits rent increases. While every province and territory restricts the frequency of rent increases, only four provinces have some sort of […] More »

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered some of the many disparities affecting Canadian society today. One of the most outstanding examples of this are the deficiencies exposed in senior care facilities and the subsequent calls for aging in place from experts and seniors alike. (Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta observed the highest rate of seniors who perished as […] More »

“You’re from Scarborough!?” Scarborough rolled off his tongue like a bitter taste he was trying to get rid of, almost as soon as the word left his mouth. This is one of my first memories of someone’s reaction to where I lived. It sounded heavy with the weight of negative stereotypes. I didn’t know I […] More »

In Neepawa, Manitoba—population 4,609 as of 2016—any rental unit that comes on the market is immediately snapped up. The town’s economic development officer, Marilyn Crewe, says a pork processing plant run by HyLife Foods LP has gone from employing 350 people to 1,500 in the space of 12 years. “You need to understand …in the […] More »

The excavators were a sore sight. Each machine with its little claw dug into the earth, ripping out the vegetation that grew in place of the usual rows of corn. Just like that, another piece of farmland in Markham, Ontario would be turned to houses. “I’ve had this for eight years,” I tell my boyfriend, […] More »

Residential landlords and tenants have a very specific type of business relationship: rent (money) is paid every month in exchange for goods (the rental unit) and services (repairs and maintenance). But what happens when a tenant isn’t getting their money’s worth? They can consult the Tenant Hotline, a free service of the Federation of Metro […] More »

Judy Kerr was only 30 years old when she found herself living in a nursing home in 2017—unable to find accessible, affordable housing in Toronto, she had no other choice. Kerr, who uses a wheelchair, was left unhoused after a dispute with her roommate, a renter from whom she was subletting. Unsure of where to […] More »

A 240-square-foot house may not seem like an ideal living situation, but for some people who are unhoused, tiny homes can be a creative solution tackling a small part of the issue. According to a 2018 Canadian government report, approximately 35,000 Canadians experience some form of homelessness on any given night, and the Territories face […] More »

“So, where is your apartment around?” she asked me. Even before answering, I know where this is going. She isn’t asking because of romantic interest, the subtle hint of inviting herself over. Perhaps she wants to size me up, or maybe it’s just one of those gold-standard small talk questions someone asks, similar to “what […] More »

When recent university graduate Michelle Martins returned to her hometown of Kitimat, a town in northern B.C. with a population reported to be about 9,000 people, she didn’t plan to stay for long. “I came back to Kitimat. I gave myself a year. And I feel like Kitimat is kind of like the Bermuda Triangle […] More »