The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author.
“In dreams begins responsibility”
— W.B. Yeats
We have to learn to play nice in the sandbox.
Every day I see rental ads demanding AAA tenants, perfect credit scores, unblemished lifelong track records, no pets, no children, no risk, no dandruff, no humanity, no breathing near the drywall, and preferably a tenant who somehow earns orthodontist money while still needing to rent an illegal two-bedroom basement apartment and sleep beside a furnace from the Lester B. Pearson administration.
Then, the same landlord wonders why the unit sits empty for six months while they complain about mortgage rates on Facebook like they personally survived the fall of Rome.
Now, let’s not pretend every tenant is an innocent victim floating through life on a cloud of honesty and butterfly kisses.
Some tenants absolutely destroy properties, lie on applications and abuse Landlord and Tenant Board delays like it’s a side hustle.
They stop paying rent, refuse access, damage units and then demand cash for keys like they’re negotiating the release of hostages instead of returning somebody else’s property.
Those people exist, and they make life harder for everyone.
But here’s the real problem.
The Ontario rental market is creating the exact people it claims to fear, and both bad landlords and bad tenants are helping fuel the machine.
The fantasy tenant
Every landlord seems to want the same applicant now.
They want a 700-plus credit score, a fairy-tale job that they have been revered at for at least a decade, absolutely no pets, or children, or opinionated Facebook posts, or debt, or drinking, or personality, or visitors, or smoking or vaping of any sort. Oh, and there’s no parking, so figure that out yourself.
If you don’t like it … no dice.
They want someone who was hatched in a laboratory.
News flash! The rental market is made up of people rebuilding, people recovering, people working two or three minimum-wage jobs. It’s people with children they love but maybe came too soon, and people with special needs, and people starting over, and people leaving relationships, and people recovering from illness.
These are often people who wake up tired and come home dirty and have a few too many too often just to keep what is left of their sanity. They are people who are doing the jobs that all of us need but none of us revere. Maybe they’ve hit one too many road blocks, or just screwed up, or are trying to crawl out of debt during one of the most expensive periods in modern Canadian history.
Real people.
But somewhere along the line, landlords stopped screening for good tenants and started screening for perfection.
Those are not the same thing.
A bad credit score does not automatically mean a bad tenant, and a clean application absolutely does not guarantee a good human being. I’ve seen tenants with ugly credit treat properties beautifully, and I’ve seen polished applications from people who could destroy a kitchen faster than a raccoon locked inside a pop-up trailer.
What if landlords were treated the same way?
Let’s run with that.
Imagine a system where all landlords must have proof of income to ensure they are able to handle their rental property financially without tenants (not using them as a life preserver), all past tenant complaints must be provided as well as a list of all previous tenants (with contact information) and how long they lived there. All Landlord and Tenant Board interactions must be transparent. Neighbour references are mandatory as well as property tax and bill payment history for all rentals the landlord possesses. Full current address and phone number(s) and emails must be provided along with a notarized letter guaranteeing the landlord will not sell the home or move in a relative for a fixed amount of time. Criminal record check, credit and employment history, of course. Maintenance history and installation dates of all appliances, furnace, A/C, roofing, plumbing, wiring and flooring must be provided prior to tenancy along with proof of lock change after the last tenancy. If any repair of more than $50 is delayed more than three days, subsequent days are to be deducted from the monthly rent.
If the landlord smokes or drinks or has pets or children, they must provide a handwritten essay explaining why they are granted those privileges but not the prospective tenant.
I mean, come on. Were you personally gifted to the planet upon angel wings and born into royalty?
If we are going to dehumanize, let’s dehumanize everyone.
The application maze
Some Ontario rental applications look like you’re applying for nuclear security clearance … You must have a spotless credit report, glimmering employment letter, bank statements, authorized biography, post-dated cheques (do they still even make cheques?) and “refundable” key and damage deposits that somehow cost more than a BMW motor rebuild.
If you get past that, you have to pay the hydro, water and sewage charges. You have to pay the gas and hot water tank rental (and property taxes, if they can wring it out of you). The Tenant is responsible for lawn care and snow removal (to the Landlord’s sole satisfaction) and the Landlord reserves the right to maintain full, 24-hour property video surveillance.
Ah, there is nothing like that feeling when you get home after a hard day and it feels like you just finished a work detail and are returning to Millhaven Institution.
Anyway, if they judge you worthy of all of the above, they shall grant you permission … to overpay … for the privilege of existing indoors.
Enjoy.
Then the landlord disappears to another region, province or country while the tenant spends six months texting into the void about mould, leaks, broken appliances, or a ceiling that’s one sneeze away from becoming an open-concept skylight.
And before someone starts screaming in the comments, “Ahhhhhh, tenants are nightmares too!!!!” I’m getting to them.
Let me finish with this first …
Ontario’s rental market has become so paranoid that many decent tenants never even get a chance. The quiet guy rebuilding after divorce? Rejected. The woman with stable Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) income and a bruised credit score from medical debt? Rejected. The couple recovering from layoffs but paying every bill they can? Rejected. The person with one dog and honest references? Rejected.
Not because they’re dangerous.
Because someone before them messed everything up.
The math nobody talks about
Here’s the part that absolutely blows my mind.
A landlord lists a unit for $3,000 per month, but nobody rents it and six months go by.
That landlord has now lost: $3,000 x 6 months = $18,000.
Now, compare that to accepting a good, but not perfect, tenant immediately at $2,500 per month.
What’s the difference?
Well, mathematically, it’s $500 per month.
But, to recover the money lost while waiting for the perfect would take almost three years. We’re not even including the property taxes, insurance, utilities, mortgage interest, advertising and maintenance.
Let alone the vacancy stress.
The derangement of it absolutely befuddles me.
Some landlords spend so much time trying to avoid tenant risk that they fail to see the much bigger financial damage they are causing themselves.
What if that six months turns into 12?
The ODSP conversation
Let’s get uncomfortable.
Ontario’s rental market increasingly collides with people living on ODSP or fixed incomes, and before the internet goes berserk on me, no, that does not mean landlords should blindly hand keys to anyone with a pulse and a tragic backstory. And yes, shockingly enough, some people even abuse the system.
A rental property is not a charity.
Landlords take real risks. Huge financial risks. It takes backbone and way more effort than most people know. I respect those who are working hard to improve their lives through real estate. It is a time-tested and proven method to increase wealth. I applaud them. We desperately need housing, that is abundantly clear. So, hats off to those who convert a basement into a rental or an old home into a triplex.
They put their money, time, financial stability and hearts on the line in the pursuit of a positive financial future, and security for their families.
And what do they get for that effort?
Not applause or a parade. That’s for sure.
What they occasionally get is someone who moves in and is more adept at lying than a FIFA official. Then they systematically take a jackhammer to the new flooring, drywall and cupboards, while single-handedly turning the yard into an ecological hazard … and then they complain and squat and let the Landlord and Tenant Board twiddle its thumbs for a year.
The landlord slowly drowns in debt, damages and stress while the tenant and company go about their days.
Let’s make this clear: one destructive tenant can financially hammer today’s small landlord into tomorrow’s begging tenant.
We are not playing nice.
And why?
Because of some bad apples in each bin, landlords often consider tenants vermin and tenants often consider landlords to be slumlords.
The tenant in the middle
This is the person I think about most.
Not perfect, or polished, or wealthy.
Just decent. Just a person.
Maybe their credit score sucks. It likely does. They’ve made mistakes, but they own them. Maybe they survived a brutal few years. Maybe life happened to them faster than they could recover from it.
But they pay, they communicate, they work, they care … and they’re damned thankful to have a home.
They appreciate stability because they know exactly what instability feels like.
But right now many of these people are getting rejected by a rental market fuelled by panic, greed, resentment and desperation.
Landlords are terrified of one bad tenant destroying them financially and tenants are terrified that one missed payment or bad month could leave them homeless.
Meanwhile, the government keeps pasting bandages on problems that need surgery.
And when everyone starts operating in survival mode, the entire system begins producing worse landlords, worse tenants and worse outcomes.
The uncomfortable truth (if you have a roof)
This isn’t just a landlord-tenant problem anymore. When enough people fail the application maze, the consequences don’t stop at the rental listing. They become a community problem.
According to Niagara Region’s 2024 Point-in-Time Count, at least 701 people were experiencing homelessness in Niagara on a single day, including 101 children under the age of 16. That was up from 665 people counted in 2021.
But that number only captures a snapshot.
Niagara Region’s homelessness system reported 1,136 individuals on its By-Name List at the end of 2024, meaning more than 1,100 people were known to be experiencing homelessness and actively connected to local homelessness services. While that was slightly lower than 2023, it remains a staggering number for a region of Niagara’s size.
Even more concerning, Niagara’s homelessness is becoming increasingly chronic. Regional data found that 61 per cent of surveyed individuals had been homeless for six months or longer, a significant increase from previous counts. In other words, more people are not only becoming homeless, they are staying homeless longer.
Niagara’s shelter and housing system helped 991 people transition from emergency shelters into housing during 2024, proving that when housing is available, people do in fact move forward. The problem isn’t that people cannot recover. The problem is that there are not nearly enough pathways available for them to do so.
Why this pisses me off
If denying housing to people fixed bad credit, Ontario wouldn’t have a homelessness problem.
If making people homeless taught financial responsibility, Niagara’s homelessness numbers would be falling instead of climbing.
The evidence suggests the exact opposite.
Once people lose stable housing, they become less employable, less healthy, more stressed, more financially vulnerable, more criminal, and significantly more likely to remain trapped in the very circumstances they desperately need to escape.
If this is a mental health crisis, then it must be addressed as a mental health priority. The fact is, some people are not in the emotional, mental or physical state to help themselves. That is not the same as a “bad tenant.” It is an entirely different subject (I will blog about that someday, if you’re interested).
And here’s the dangerous fantasy we keep repeating: “If people can’t qualify, they simply shouldn’t rent.”
Okay. Then what?
Seriously, what happens next?
Do they disappear? Do they magically become financially stable? Do they emerge from the forest six months later holding an 800 credit score and a letter of employment from the Ministry of Unicorns?
No.
They go somewhere, anywhere, even the streets, or they couch surf, or move back home in shame, or into a shelter, or live in unsafe housing. They move into motels.
As much as we don’t want to discuss it, some even sacrifice their own lives.
That is a tragedy … and so many shades of uncool that I could never even begin to rant about it.
Homelessness is not cheap
Homelessness is enormously expensive.
Canadian homelessness research consistently estimates public costs around $30,000 to $40,000 per person annually once you factor in shelters, health care, policing, courts, emergency response, encampment cleanup, mental health intervention and social services.
Health-care costs for people experiencing homelessness are dramatically higher than for housed individuals.
So when people say, “Screw them, just deny everyone under 600 credit,” I say, “Okay, but understand what that actually means. You are not eliminating the cost. You are relocating the cost.”
Eventually taxpayers pay for it through hospitals and shelters and policing. We pay through mental health systems, neighbourhood decline and emergency response.
We pay for it through public disorder and social collapse that slowly spreads outward into communities already struggling to stay afloat.
The system literally manufactures future desperation.
Housing changes human behaviour
Housing is not just shelter. Housing is stability … and hope.
Stable housing creates better employment retention, better school performance, better physical health, lower stress, lower crime and stronger communities.
The opposite is also true.
If someone constantly lives on the edge of eviction, survival becomes the priority. Not financial planning, or savings, or job security, or continuing education, or family, or cutting the lawn, or stability.
White-knuckled survival.
Survival mode changes people, and it applies to both tenants and landlords.
Bad tenants create paranoid landlords and bad landlords create defeated tenants.
Then everybody starts assuming the worst about each other.
Passing the maze doesn’t mean you’re a good landlord
This is another part nobody says nearly enough: “Owning property does not automatically make someone responsible.”
Some landlords overprice neglected units, ignore maintenance, demand illegal nonsense, refuse repairs and act personally offended every time a tenant expects basic living standards.
Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act exists for a reason.
A tenant paying rent is not doing a landlord a favour, and a landlord providing safe housing is not charity. It is an agreement. A professional relationship.
Or at least it should be.
The best landlords I know are not reckless. They are not naive, they screen properly, they verify income and know the law. They maintain the property, communicate clearly, and charge fair market rent instead of fantasy market rent.
And because of that, they often attract better long-term tenants than landlords running applications like a CIA interrogation program.
Funny how that works.
A quick backhander for tenants too (because I let you off easy). Why (someone please explain to me) do so many tenants (who are living on the edge) always have three or more pets that eat better than them and a trailer?
Just some dog food for thought.
No-bullshit conclusion
The Ontario rental market does not need more fantasy.
It needs adults.
Landlords need to stop pretending every tenant with imperfect credit is a future criminal mastermind, and tenants need to stop pretending rent, damages and accountability are optional suggestions.
Our government needs to stop pretending people can survive modern Ontario housing costs with outdated support systems that barely cover subsisting on two cans of tuna a week.
And all of us need to understand something simple. When people lose access to stable housing, they do not disappear. They become more desperate, more unstable and more expensive.
And the damage reaches everybody.
Because housing is not just about property. It is about whether people can function at all.
About me
I don’t write because I think I’m smarter than anyone else. I most certainly am not.
Honestly, most of my articles start because I’m trying to understand something … maybe even just understand myself.
Real estate has given me a front-row seat to thousands of conversations about housing, money, fear, opportunity, mistakes, success and survival. The longer I work in the Niagara Region, the more I realize that housing is rarely just about buildings. It’s about people, families, stress, security, hope and sometimes desperation.
It’s about hanging your hat and a good night’s sleep.
I write because I learn something every time I dig into these topics, and I hope the people reading them learn something too.
Whether you agree with me, disagree with me, or think I’m batshit crazy, that’s okay. The goal isn’t to be right about everything. The goal is to have honest conversations about real problems that affect real people.
My articles are not sales pitches.
They’re my attempt to understand the market, understand the people living in it, and hopefully leave future consumers a little more informed than they were yesterday.
Because in my experience, educated consumers make better decisions.
And better decisions usually lead to happier endings.
Play nice out there. Be responsible. Build dreams. Yeats would appreciate it.
