Just thinking

Newmarket has been thinking about licensing Boarding or Lodging Houses for years but has never quite got round to doing anything about it. (Graphic right: Minutes of Committee of the Whole meeting on 3 May 2011). 

Many of our near neighbours such as Barrie have been licensing boarding houses for ages. 

Barrie licences Boarding, Lodging and Rooming Houses (BLR) to make sure they are safe:

“Building Code requirements respecting fire and life safety for BLR houses are much more stringent than the requirements for single detached dwellings. Upgrading a single detached dwelling to a BLR house requires significant construction and has significant costs associated with that construction.” 

Statistics Canada defines lodging and rooming houses this way:

“This category includes commercial establishments (which may originally have been a private dwelling) that have furnished rooms for rent. Residents receive no type of care. They generally have access to common facilities such as the kitchen and/or bathroom. Generally, the clientele are transitioning between housing tenures or locations, and have no other place of residence.”

I have no idea how many boarding houses there are in Newmarket but the 2021 census tells us 2,470 people in Newmarket were living only with non-relatives – which excludes Common Law relationships. So maybe that gives us a clue. I don't know.

In any event, it is as plain as a pikestaff there are boarding houses out there, totally unregulated by the municipality. 

Zoning for People 

Newmarket’s Mayor, John Taylor, says the municipality doesn’t zone for people – they zone for uses. Quite right too.

That said, a boarding house is a use classification in its own right which should be licensed and regulated. 

Paradoxically, the Town does license “Additional Residential Units” using the same health and safety arguments that come into play with boarding houses. These ARU's are often converted basements with kitchen, living space and bathroom and, crucially, a separate entrance.

“But if you rent a room in a house or a flat with a shared entrance, kitchen and/ or bathroom facilities, the ARU By-law does not apply to you.”

So it is quite possible for five, six, seven or more unrelated people to live in a boarding house using a shared front door and other facilities and stay under the radar, invisible to the municipality.

Regulated boarding houses – almost by definition – don’t cause problems. But the unregulated ones can cause major headaches in neighbourhoods. Garbage is just one but there are loads of others. I could write a book about it.

The Town also regulates short-term rentals but only if the owner doesn't live on the premises.

If the owner has more than one property the Town must determine which is his or her "primary residence".

Rents going through the roof

Later this year the Town will be completing its Official Plan Review and I cannot believe it will say nothing about Boarding Houses. 

As everyone knows, rental housing in Newmarket is scarce and expensive with people taking what's on offer at a rent they can afford. Rents are way out of reach for increasing numbers of people.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board tells us that in Newmarket in the fourth quarter of 2024 there were, in total, three 1 bedroom apartments rented out at an average rent of $2,267 and three 2 bedroom apartments at an average rent of $2,733. In addition, 29 townhouses were rented out at an average rent of $2,217 (1 bed); $2,655 (2 beds) and $3,045 (3 beds). These are eye-watering sums of money for many Newmarket people.

Out of sight. Out of mind

For its part, York Region has a boarding house by-law but, astonishingly, does not license boarding or lodging houses other than those it helps finance.

The Town's Mayor, John Taylor, who has been living and breathing housing policy for decades, knows the extent of the problem. In fact, he has just been elected to Chair York Region's Housing and Homelessness Committee.

So maybe he can tell us why boarding houses here in Town are not licensed.

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Clip from a discussion on housing matters as part of the Official Plan Review on 18 September 2023. Boarding houses are fleetingly mentioned.

Update on 20 May 2025: I use "boarding houses" here as a catch-all term. Definitions vary. Boarding houses may offer meals. Lodging houses don't.