Forced to move out of their rental home in Aurora, Ont., the Eliesen family have been struggling for months to find a new place to live in the town. Their offer of two years' rent up front, or "nearly $100,000 cash," according to David Eliesen, has been declined multiple times.
"(We) put in an offer of $200 a month over the asking price," David's wife, Kayla, told CTV National News. On top of that, they've tried offering other deal-sweeteners, such as $2000 damage deposits, but nothing seems to be working. Each of their multiple offers to rent a family home in the area north of Toronto have been declined.
In June, thanks in part to the recent surge in immigration, the country's population surpassed 40 million. While a growing population is being touted as essential to Canada's economy, real estate experts believe the country has forgotten an important piece of the equation.
"Government really should have tried to solve how to build more homes first before increasing our population growth, because the side effect of that is skyrocketing home prices," John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty, told CTV National News.
When it comes to housing affordability in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and the rest of the country, Pasalis believes "the weight of this crisis quite frankly is felt by renters, because they're seeing their rents surge and they're not benefiting the way home owners are from rising home prices."
The Eliesen family have lived in the same home for the last eight years, but their landlord has family immigrating to Canada from Ukraine, and now the landlord needs to move into the home.
The family's rent had been a manageable $1900 dollars per month, but due to current market demands, a similar three- to four-bedroom home in Aurora is going to cost the young Eliesen family roughly $4,000 per month, maybe more.
They said they’re willing and able to handle the rent increase, but many landlords want a tenant whose monthly salary is triple the monthly rent. The Eliesens don't earn more than $12,000 a month, so to put potential landlords at ease, a wealthy family member is co-signing their rental applications, and even that appears to be insufficient.
"We still can't get a home," notes the worried mother. The family is now considering moving to Atlanta where they have additional family and where homes are comparatively much more affordable.
Kayla says she never thought a lack of housing would lead them to feel "forced to move (out of the country), we always thought it would be by our own choice."
According to Pasalis, "Landlords can sit back and wait because they're getting multiple applications."
The Eilesens aren't the only family being squeezed out of a hyper-competitive housing market. According to market research firm Urbanation, rental costs for GTA condos continue to climb and are at an average of about $2,800 a month—a nearly 32 per cent increase over the past two years.
Urabanation's president, Shaun Hildebrand, points to multiple factors forcing the price of rental properties in Canada up.
"Rents are now being driven to new highs on interest rates hitting their highest level in 22 years, the population increasing by a record pace, near record-low unemployment and scarce supply," Hildebrand told CTV National News.
Toronto's former chief city planner Jennifer Keesmaat says she sat down with the federal government multiple times over the past several years and proposed housing solutions for Canada's rising population. She claims that the federal ministers she's spoken with have remained "willfully ignorant" of the problem.
"We need to start acting like we're in a crisis if we're going to respond to the magnitude of the need. Every month that we don't build we get farther and farther behind,"Keesmaat told CTV National News.
Rental affordability has been trending in a troubling direction, according to a recent report released by the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives. For a couple to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment rental in Toronto, they'd need to each make an hourly wage of $33.62, more than double Ontario's minimum wage of $15.50. To afford a two-bedroom unit the same couple each need to make $40.03 per hour and allot 30 per cent of their combined income to pay the rent.
Keesmaat, who is now a developer in the private sector, believes one positive step to ease the affordability crunch for rentals is for the government to offer significant tax breaks, like scrapping the HST for developers who construct purpose-built affordable homes.
"Often times the HST, the portion going straight to the government, is more than the developer's profit," shares Keesmaat, who says some land approved for development has been sitting empty for years on end. "If we're in a crisis and we need more housing, why is the government taxing every housing unit with HST? Eliminating the HST would bring some of those projects into viability and they'd get built."
For the Eilesen family, they've had a container packed with their belongings in their driveway since late April. They thought they would have found a place to move into by June 1, however, that hasn't happened.
Their current landlord, who they have a good relationship with, has extended their moving date to August 31. The family wants to stay in Aurora if possible—David works at a nearby garage, and Kayla works at their children's school in the neighbourhood.
Unsure if they'll end up being forced to move back in with parents, the couple can't help but ponder what others in similar situations might be facing.
"What is it like for other families that aren't as fortunate as us, that don't have that income or that money to back them, or even family support to help them? How are they going to survive, where are they going to go? It's terrifying."
