Affordable Rental Housing: Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Rental Housing in the City of Toronto

In the past few decades, house prices and rentals are rising resulting in low- and middle-class people struggling to find quality and affordable housing. Concurrently, government funding for affordable housing has declined and minimal efforts have been made by the public and private sector to develop affordable housing units. In 2020, this issue was heightened by the COVID19 pandemic which triggered a series of unfortunate and unprecedented situations at a local and global level delineating long-term effect on rental housing and urban neighbourhoods. Consequently, this paper aims to illustrate the effects of COVID-19 on rental housing by exposing the consequences of dismissing the execution of adequate housing as a fundamental human right. This qualitative study obtains a broad range of perspectives on the issue by reviewing media sources and government policies to ascertain the state of rental housing in the City of Toronto. The main findings speak to the lack of tenant protections, opposing perspectives of stakeholders, and the urgent need for rental housing affordability. Finally, this paper proposes considerations for future study and innovative solutions to achieve rental affordability in the City of Toronto