The Residences @ York, more commonly know as the York Apartments, are seperated by graduate and undergraduate student status.

For undergraduate students, rent costs are attached to their student meal plans, meaning that student can't secure a place to live without opting to pay additionally for a meal plan. Undergrads are guaranteed a place in residence in their first-year of studies, but not afterwards, meanign that students are get caught looking for a place to live in their second year, and their choices are often limited to the QUAD @ York or the Village @ York.

Graduate student have access to the Assiniboine Apartments and the housing avialable at Passy Crescent. Now the cost of graduate student housing is significantly cheaper than ndergraudate residence, but it still often costs more than $1,000/month. Add the facts that these building are old, and in need to constant maintenance and repair, and that graduate student turnover can be higher than undergraudate student turnover, pest issues, ventilation issues, and accessibiliy issue get thrown into the mix.

An important thing to remmeber when living in student housing, whether at the QUAD and/or at the York Apartments, is that you cannot claim your rent in your taxes — since this housing was publically funded and/or subsidized, the Canada Revenue Agency and York Housing claims that allowing students to claim rent receipts would be akin to double-dipping.

Oevrall, the York Apartments are [sometimes] more affordable alternative than the QUAD, and a more convenient and ostencibly 'safer' alternative to the Village — the issue with the apartment remains the limited availability of housing for graduate and undergraduate students.

The York Apartments offer limited availability/limited term hosuing options to students and families.

The limited availability of the publically subsidized units is the result of cuts to federal and provincial financial transfers to post-secondary institutions in the 1970-1980's, which coicide with the the Great Recession. These budget cuts meant that no new publically funded student housing was built by universities across Ontario, including York University.

The limited term of this housing (as little as one (1) year for undergraudates) means that when students graduates, or when their first-year term is up, they need to find anew place to live. This spectre of displacement follows every student that lives in the York Apartments, and become a significant challenge for students once they've ocmpleted their studies.

Finally, this housing is old. There's usually nothing wrong with living in older buildings that are well maintained, but the cuts to public funding mean that universities have to balance extracting increasingly high rents from students with the need to maintain and repair their housing. In one year, student might experience significant pest issue (i.e. roaches, mice...), and in another, they might find themselves faced with rent increases.

Why is it an Issue?

The issues with the York Apartments go hand-in-hand with maintenance and repair challenges for older buildings. High maintenance and repair costs mean that York Housing either needs to charge more for rents (reducing housing affordability) or that these maintenance issues go-on unaddresses (reducing housing liveability).

Combined with the facts that there is a limited number of available units (high competition) and that students can only live in these units for a limited term (high turnover), students can hardly call the apartment a place to call home. Upon graduation, students celebrate their bittersweet accomplishments by looking for a new place to live, with little-to-no time preparing for a transition into Toronto's private rental housing market.

Most importantly, high student turnover and competition for housing means that issues around maintenance and repairs (i.e. pest issues) often go unresolved. The contributes to a vicsious cycle whereby new students face the same issues, either rent icnreases or ongoing pest issues.

YCHA focuses on harnessing the collective voices of students, residents, homeowners and landlord in the York Community to lobby the city and city councillors for action on housing.

Our goal is to funnel the issues surrounding safe, clean and secure housing in the York Community directly to the public and municipal authorities.

How Does YCHA help?

1. By identifying the injustices that affect residents/students living in the York Community;

2. By providing personal guidance, support and solutions to challenge injustice;

3. By raising awareness and addressing ongoing issues with housing in the City of Toronto, The Village @ York University, the QUAD @ York, and York Grad/Undergrad Residence;

4. By educating and empowering students/residents and landlords on their rights and responsibilities as per the Landlord and Tenant Act, and Provincial and Municipal By-Laws;

5. By supporting residents living in and/or seeking to leave precarious, unsafe, and/or untenable living and housing conditions on a case-by-case basis.