Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in a Boarding House free essay sample

Rooming houses may have as few as three rooms for rent, or more than a hundred. Rooming houses are the cheapest form of permanent accommodation currently available in Toronto. Rents average about $400-$450 a month. Those who cannot afford a room in a rooming house, or who are evicted from a rooming house because they cannot pay the rent generally have to go to a hostel. (This puts an added burden on the city, because housing people in hostels costs about $1,200 per person per month. ) Rooming houses are an essential form of housing for low-income people. They constitute the bottom rung of the housing ladder. If they disappear, it will become even harder for low-income people to remain on the ladder, let alone climb it. In other words, the fewer rooms that are available in rooming houses in Toronto, the greater the number of people who will fill the hostels and live on the streets. We will write a custom essay sample on Advantages and Disadvantages of Living in a Boarding House or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The decline in the numbers of rooming houses in Toronto has occurred at the same time as an increase in homelessness. The people who live in rooming houses are those who cannot afford self-contained apartments. These people include people on social assistance, people with minimum-wage jobs, students, new immigrants who are not yet established in jobs, refugees, old age pensioners with low incomes, disabled people, and former psychiatric patients. Recently, because of the shortage of inexpensive apartments in Toronto, working people who would normally have found apartments have begun to move into certain rooming houses. A rooming house is considered illegal if it contravenes city bylaws. In the former City of Toronto, rooming houses are required to obtain a license from City Hall to operate. Any rooming house that does not have a license can be considered illegal. Rooming houses may also be illegal because their owners did not obtain a permit to make renovations to divide up the building, because they do not have sufficient parking for tenants, or because one or more rooms are below a certain minimum size. Rooming houses are also illegal if they are located in one of the former municipalities that prohibited them in its bylaws. Boarding houses offer tenants food and other services in addition to accommodation. Boarding houses often house elderly people, former psychiatric patients, or the disabled. A program called Habitat Services helps ensure that certain boarding houses maintain adequate standards of cleanliness and care. This program requires that the owner/operator of the boarding home sign a contract with Habitat Services. In return for funding, the owner/operator agrees to accept periodic inspections of the house and regular visits from service providers.