From the Toronto Star

Homeowners sue Oshawa over rowdy student renters
April 02, 2010

Carola Vyhnak


Emil Hanzelka is representing Oshawa homeowners in a lawsuit against the city over ongoing problems with students who rent houses in their neighbourhood.

CAROLA VYHNAK/TORONTO STAR

Cathy Provenzano’s two children can’t ride their bikes or go on their own to the park in their north Oshawa neighbourhood.

The hundreds of university and college students renting houses in their midst make it too risky, she says.

“Every Friday, every Saturday, there are parties. They offered booze to kids in the park once,” Provenzano fumes. “Now I have to tell my kids they’re not allowed to enjoy their neighbourhood.”

She’s one of numerous homeowners who are fed up with ongoing problems of noise, parking, parties, garbage and vandalism. Acting on their behalf, four members of the Cedar Valley Home Owners Association of north Oshawa are suing the city in a bid to reclaim their neighbourhood.

“We’re not asking for money,” says association president Emil Hanzelka. “We want this neighbourhood returned to single family homes, which is what it was built for.”

The city has failed to enforce the zoning bylaw, they contend, allowing absentee landlords to rent out as many as six or eight bedrooms, which is illegal in a single-family area.

The allegations have not been proven in court. City solicitor David Potts can’t comment because the matter is pending.

After years of complaining, suggesting solutions and meeting with officials and council — all to no avail — residents feel Oshawa Mayor John Gray has let them down and their only recourse is to take the city to court.

They cite broken glass, beer bottles and condoms strewn around, front lawns torn up by cars, eggs thrown at houses and garbage piled up. In one case, students retaliated against an older couple who complained about rowdy behaviour by sticking pieces of glass in their backyard to cut their dog’s feet, the homeowners charge.

“Every day I get complaints about bylaw infractions, parking, garbage, parties, you name it,” says councillor John Neal, who’s spent years trying to find a solution.

The homeowners’ fight is with landlords who they say collect between $2,400 and $4,000 by renting out as many as eight bedrooms in one house to students attending nearby Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

When Hanzelka and his wife moved into their retirement home 10 years ago, there were no students renting in the neighbourhood. Now, of 430 homes, close to half are lodging houses, he says. Dalhousie Cres., where the trouble started in 2006, has only about a dozen families left.

While many families have fled the “streets of broken dreams,” Hanzelka says, “it just makes me mad to even think about selling.” Appraisals show his house has dropped at least $100,000 in value, he says.

Two years ago, the city introduced a licensing requirement for landlords, which imposed tougher housing standards and limited the number of bedrooms in a house. But the homeowners argue the move did nothing to eliminate multiple tenants.

Twenty-eight landlords taken to court by a developer in a nearby community were found guilty of running illegal rooming houses and ordered to close them last year, but the city has failed to follow up, the homeowners allege. In a ruling released Friday, Ontario Superior Court Justice P.D. Lauwers found two landlords in contempt for failing to stop operating lodging houses.

More than 13,000 full-time students attend the fast-growing college and university near Simcoe St. and Taunton Rd. About 1,600 residential units are available in on-campus housing with another 550 spaces to come this fall.

A city staff report on student housing will be discussed at a public meeting on April 8, 6:30 p.m. at the Oshawa and District Shrine Hall, 1626 Simcoe St. N.