Housing over Profit campaign: What do we do?

The Advocacy Office’s Housing Over Profit Campaign centres on advocating for creating, maintaining, and protecting deeply affordable housing for students by engaging with multiple stakeholders such as the University of Ottawa, the provincial government, the federal government and other community organizations.  

At the same time, the Housing Over Profit Campaign, has been working on engaging students to be more confident in advocating their own rights through community events, workshops, tabling, etc.  

If you are interested in being involved with housing advocacy or have any questions about the campaign, please contact the Advocacy Commissioner.

Student Housing Exploratory Caucus (SHEC)

UOSU launched its first ever Student Exploratory Housing Caucus (SHEC), which was composed of 4 students, 2 UOSU board members, and 2 of UOSU’s executive office staff. The caucus was created to collect data, validate the real challenges that students face with renting and fight back against the “broke student” stereotype.  

In 2025, SHEC expanded its research to explore the experiences of international students in renting. While also creating an expansive housing resource directory to assist students in advocating for their housing rights.

SHEC 2024-2025 Report

The purpose of this report is to consolidate the findings of the SHEC survey, explore the issues faced by student renters at the University of Ottawa, and develop concrete policy recommendations for relevant authorities including the University of Ottawa, the City of Ottawa, the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada.  

In this past year, SHEC has:

• Created and distributed over 1500+ “Tenant Rights” brochures to further inform students on their rights.  
• Hosted a Housing Caucus Report Launch party that had over 100 attendees, including; non-profit housing groups, city counsellors, members of parliament, university administration, and other key stakeholders!
• Presented to City Council on our report findings
• Had meetings with City staff and developers to implement housing policy that support students

• Led a large-scale study and created a report on the state of student housing in Ottawa
• Created a list of Policy recommendations for relevant authorities, including the municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

Report Highlights

The average rent paid by students surveyed is $926.8, with 95% (n= 310) identifying rent prices as a primary challenge.  

Students in Ontario face a higher average rent ($935.4) compared to those in Quebec ($830.1).

Financially, 25% (n= 106) of respondents rely solely on employment income. A student earning the minimum wage in Ottawa ($17.20/h) would need to work 54 hours per month just to cover the average rent cost, excluding tuition, food and transportation costs.

Additionally, students renting from corporate landlords pay an average of $1019.6 a month – a price significantly higher than others – $75.26 more than small-scale renters and $160.7 more than medium-scale renters.  

7.07% (n=29) students reported paying illegal rental application fees, 37.93% (n=11) of those  were from corporate landlords.  

The distribution of landlords among students shows that 38.8% (n= 159) rent from medium-scale landlords, 33.2% (n= 136) from corporate landlords, and 17.1% (n= 70) from small-scale landlords.  

The increasing financialization and corporatization of Sandy Hill where 44% (n= 182) of students live raises concerns for the potential of ongoing rent increases on students.

52% (n= 213) of students reported it was “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult” to secure accommodations.

62% (n= 255) report that their housing situation has negatively impacted their mental health.

Renting 101: Your Rights & Obligations

SHEC has gathered information on your rights as a tenant! What are your rights as a renter and what are your obligations.

Find our tenant rights pamphlet below!

How to Find a Place to Rent

SHEC also wants to help you find a place to live! From where to start your search to what neighborhood best suits you, to the steps you should take to making sure the place isn’t a scam, click the button below to find everything you need!