This is what the future of rooming houses could look like in Toronto
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For a city like Toronto, where even those making decent wages struggle to afford a home, the need for affordable housing becomes more and more important.
Multi-tenant rooming houses are an important part of affordable housing, allowing everyone from students to low income workers to live in a shared space at a fraction of the cost of most housing within the city.
Now, the city is looking to modify the framework on these rooming houses allowing for expanded zoning, and better health and safety protections for tenants in these residences.
Posted: Feb 17, 2021 9:04 PM ET | Last Updated: February 18
On Feb. 13, the city reported that there was one variant of concern at the Maxwell Meighen Centre, a shelter funded by the city but run by the Salvation Army on Sherbourne Street near Queen Street East.(Ivan Arsovski/CBC)
Toronto s medical officer of health says she is concerned about the presence of COVID-19 variants of concern within the city s homeless shelter system.
Dr. Eileen de Villa confirmed Wednesday that there is now more than one COVID-19 case involving a variant at a city shelter, but she did not provide details on which shelters have variants of concern or which variant is present in the shelters. She said there are a total of 56 confirmed variant of concern cases in Toronto.
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Toronto is barely a month into enforcing its rules for short-term rental (STR) accommodations, but already some of those who run so-called “ghost hotels” are slipping through gaps in the regulations.
Despite having passed its by-law in 2017 and having delayed applying its regulations for most of 2020, in its first report to city council on STR enforcement the Municipal Licensing & Standards (MLS) department presented a regime that is still a work in progress.