Over twice as many families in Toronto live in 'unsuitable' homes than the rest of Canada

The average rent for a Canadian apartment surpassed $2,200 for the first time last month, with residents of Vancouver, Burnaby and Toronto — our most infamously expensive regions — struggling the most to keep a roof over their heads in this economy.

Along with sky-high prices, families in particular in T.O. are also experiencing another difficult reality, as illuminated by data from StatCan: living in what the agency considers "unsuitable housing," mostly in regards to unit size, due to said prices and what some see as serious gaps in policy.

The latest national housing survey from the government arm showed that while 9.1 per cent of people with children across Canada were living in homes too small for their family's needs (based on number of bedrooms) in 2021, the same could be said for a whopping 22.6 per cent of people in Toronto specifically.

The situation is far worse for non-home owners, with Toronto found to have the highest proportion of tenant families living in these "unsuitable" conditions — at nearly 50 per cent —  than anywhere else in Canada, even Vancouver, where average rent prices are higher.

Toronto's international students are also more likely to accept unsuitable conditions, with an estimated 37.2 per cent living in too-small spaces. In Brampton, this figure jumped to 63.3 per cent.

Toronto's next claustrophobically tiny condos are already under construction https://t.co/m0kf4dZV9I #Toronto #TorontoRealEstate #RealEstate

— blogTO (@blogTO) September 30, 2021

This can be blamed, in part, on the city's shortage of larger, multi-bedroom units, and developers' affinity for small, economical and Airbnb-friendly units.

Some of the city's micro-condos come in at under 300 square feet of living space, which is shockingly small for even one person to comfortably make a long-term home in.

Then there are the other quality issues people have found with Toronto's newer buildings: thin walls, bad floorplans, lack of closet and storage space, all with a small square footage and ridiculously high price, whether to rent or to buy.

Hallway living....shoe box thin walls existence...cool...

— Francois Chamberland (@knize_ten) April 24, 2024

Looking at the city's citizen base more generally, a total of 12 per cent of all households were dealing with too-cramped living situations in 2021, based on StatCan's numbers — a number that is no doubt far higher now given the cost of living increases that have driven some people to rent out half of their own bedrooms or even beds.