It took three years to get rid of an illegal rooming house on a street near Sheppard and Willowdale.  Relatively speaking, that’s a success story because, in most cases, the city can’t gain entry to get evidence that would hold up in court.

Toronto City Council’s planning committee dealt with a motion that would have legalized rooming houses across Toronto. Currently, they are allowed on any street in the old city of Toronto but are illegal in North York and Scarborough. I was able to have the motion amended to examine, rather than approve, legalization and to require community consultation. 

Those in favour of legalization tend to give one of two reasons: rooming houses provide affordable housing; legalization will get rid of the illegal ones.

Having rooming houses in neighbourhoods is bad planning. In addition to allowing up to 10 unrelated residents, the population tends to be transient — meaning that you could have a very large number of next-door neighbours during the course of a few years.

This is not code for “I don’t want poor people in my neighbourhood.” There should be housing for those on low incomes in all parts of the city. But this housing should provide stability for both the individuals and the neighbourhood.

The government has a role in providing such housing and so do developers — who should be required to build truly affordable units as a percentage of their total project. Legalization would get rid of illegal houses as much as legal guns cause illegal ones to disappear.

Your comments are welcome at councillor_filion@toronto.ca.