Tales from houses with many bedrooms: What tenants say it's like inside
A sampling of what we've been hearing since our story looked at a 12-bedroom house near McMaster
Our email boxes at CBC Hamilton have been dinging this week with messages from students and tenants living in houses that have been split into multiple bedrooms after our investigation last week revealed problems with the city of Hamilton's reactive bylaw enforcement approach.
We found the descriptions of the conditions they're living in — and the range of feelings about it — compelling, so we thought we'd share some of them here.
Names and some identifying details have been left out at the tenants' request for their privacy and housing security.
The top reason they wrote us was to ask: Is my house legal? Is it safe? We gathered some answers to those questions here.
- CBC INVESTIGATES: 'Overcrowded' Hamilton house near McMaster has 12 bedrooms
- What can you do if you feel your housing is unsafe or you're nervous about your fire escape?
A post-grad student with a wife and kids in a 'box of rooms'
A postgraduate student who lives near the house we featured wrote and said he was looking for a family house with fewer bedrooms to rent, but couldn't find one.
He said student housing situations are not just for 18- or 19-year-olds. Several people he knows are, like him, in their 30s and studying at a graduate or postgraduate level at McMaster.
"A lot of us are in school for a long time and we have families in the meantime," he said. "It's not just 20-year-old kids who want to party."
A lot of us are in school for a long time and we have families in the meantime. It's not just 20-year-old kids who want to party.- Postgrad student who lives with his wife and kids in a house converted to a student rental
"Housing prices in west Hamilton are just out of the reach of young professionals studying and working at Mac, some homes with two modest incomes and a small family," he wrote.
"This is the only reason that some grad/post-graduate students and even teaching assistants and young profs continue to rent these overpriced and overhauled tinder boxes against their good conscience."
The housing that's nearby is almost all the generic multi-bedroom houses.
He and his wife and their kids live in a house that has been converted to seven bedrooms for students. She and the kids moved to Canada last year after he moved a few years ago to study.
"It's like a box of rooms," he said. "We had a small electrical fire about a month or two after moving in. The landlord assured us that everything's OK and everything's fine."
"The only thing we could find were these students homes," he said.
Student house: 12 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and 'bogged-down internet'
Another tenant doesn't have such a problem with the situation.
"I live in a 12 bedroom house near McMaster. I am not sure when it was converted but it doesn't feel so crammed that I am miserable. I mean the house definitely wasn't designed for 12 people but it isn't terrible. We have 2 kitchens and 2 sets of laundry machines/driers.
"The worst part in all honesty is the bogged-down internet.- Tenant in a house with 12 bedrooms
We also have 3 bathrooms. The worst part in all honesty is the bogged down internet. Another bad thing is the lack of common areas. So other than the kitchen tables we don't have common areas to hang out in.
"All in all, I am a student paying for what I get. I paid more for residence on campus and had a worse experience (not that it was bad). I can't speak for other homes obviously but mine has the accommodations and the landlord is great. Maybe I am too laidback to care but it isn't like I am raising a family here."
A student in a 14-bedroom house worried about fire safety
Another McMaster student lives in a house near the campus.
Although it is livable, it is also crowded.- A tenant in a house with 14 bedrooms
"We live in a house with 14. Although it is livable, it is also crowded and I am really not educated on these laws.
My main concern is fire safety. There are three stories (an attic level), and I'm unsure if all fire rules are followed."
A student who couldn't concentrate in a 12-bedroom house
Another student wrote to say he used to live in the house we featured.
You actually one at a time have to go through the hallways.- Former tenant in a 12-bedroom house
He shared some of the concerns that others raised, and said he'd been told by the previous owner there would only be six people total living there. When he moved in in August, the house was filled.
"You actually one at a time have to go through the hallways," he said.
"I tried to spend as much time as I could away from the house – in the library. It was way too noisy."
What is McMaster's part in this?
For its part, McMaster communications director Gord Arbeau said the school advocates for "an appropriate supply of safe and affordable housing for our students."
But McMaster University has an undergrad student population of 24,000, and receives about 5,300 new undergrad students each year.
It has space on campus for 3,900 of them.
Even with two projects underway, that will only house about another 1,300 students.
McMaster's off-campus housing resource coordinator declined a request for an interview, but the university sent a statement about the training and resources it offers to tenants and landlords.
The centre offers an online listing service that currently has 276 ads for housing. But don't take that listing as any kind of endorsement or statement about the quality of the housing. The school puts a disclaimer on its off-campus housing listings:
It doesn't take any responsibility for the house you rent being legally constructed or renovated; that's the landlord's duty.
"Due to the large numbers of listings it is not possible for the University to pre-screen or inspect each unit that is listed. This is made clear on the site," Arbeau said. "We also make clear that landlords posting on the site are responsible for ensuring their listing is accurate and that their unit is a legal rental property."