Rents in Oshawa forces family into discount Motel
Global News
A small family is raising their newborn daughter in a motel because of rental increases in Durham. They say with prices going up, the less likely they can find housing.
An Oshawa-area couple, along with their three-month-old daughter say the high cost of rent has left them no choice but to call the Motel 6 in Whitby their home.
“You go from having your apartment, having your life, and slowly over the course of three years it just goes down. It’s hard. Hard to deal with,” said Craig St. Denis, the father.
“There’s a lot of inflation across the country … What I’d like to see happen is an Ontario-wide rent cap. An apartment that I’ve lived in just six years ago, and that same apartment is going for $1,400 a month right now,” explains St. Denis.
The motel room they’ve been staying in for over two months was provided through an Oshawa shelter program that offers temporary, emergency housing.
“It’s been tough … everything is compacted,” said mother, Debbbie Clancey.
A report by Rentals.ca shows the cost of a one bedroom apartment in Oshawa has gone up by nearly 21% year over year, the highest jump in 35 cities across Canada.
Experts say increased demand remains a problem.
“I imagine it’s going to remain incredibly high. I am concerned for renters because it’ll become aggressively high more than likely,” said Anita Bongers-Lewis, a broker with RE/MAX Jazz.