Lack of available rentals means international students are turning to charities for shelter

The housing crunch is so bad in Timmins, Ont., that a local gurdwara, or Sikh temple, has opened its limited space to students who haven’t yet found accommodations.

More international students are choosing to attend post-secondary school in northern Ontario. But that means more support and help is needed, particularly when it comes to housing.

The Sikh Sangat temple has been “swamped with calls” from parents in India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) seeking housing help for children moving to the northern Ontario city for school.

“They’re calling from all over the world to make sure that when their daughter or their son comes to Timmins, there is someone to receive them,” said temple trustee and director Kanwaljit Bains.

“And there is someone who can give them some shelter … because they don’t know anyone,” she added.

The temple has six rooms, each with two double beds, for temporary accommodation.

“Right now, those have been occupied by most of the students who are landing in Timmins,” Bains said.

Even those temporary spaces aren’t enough.

“We are at a point where we might even end up putting mattresses in the main prayer room at night time as a worst-case scenario,” she said.

“If we can’t find a place, then we’re going to be using the library area or the main hall.”

Students who stay in the temporary accommodations are responsible to find permanent housing for their school year.

“This is like a temporary patch that we are covering up until the semester starts,” Bains said.

She said she and her husband also have some rental properties they’ve offered up to some international students, but those are now full.

Bains said that when the students see the Sikh temple, “they think they are at home” and the parents feel at ease that their children have connected with leaders at another temple.

Sikh Sangat of Timmins has an occupancy of 150, for the purpose of prayer.

“If push came to shove, we can house the students there, but that’s only a temporary solution,” Bains said.

There’s a meeting scheduled for Sept. 12 in Timmins to discuss housing needs in the city. It will include municipal officials, Northern College and other partners, including Bains from the temple.

“I shouldn’t be saying that it’s a negative thing; it is a good thing for the City of Timmins — that Timmins is growing,” Bains said.

“I am willing to contribute in every way to this city to grow and these students to settle there as well — and housing is my top priority.”

The off-campus housing situation is also tight in Greater Sudbury. There have been accounts of international students being scammed or taken advantage of by dishonest landlords.

The non-profit organization Voice of North was created this spring to help. It operates out of the new Sikh temple on Regent Street.

“Our aim is basically to help all the newcomers, plus the ones who are here obviously, but our specific goal is for the newcomers,” said co-director Harshpreet Batra.

The group helps international students and new immigrants find jobs and accommodations, and provides legal help, if needed. They have lawyers and consultants on their team to help with housing issues or disputes between landlords and tenants.

“We want to make sure our students especially, and our new immigrants, our newcomers, are very well aware of their [tenant] rights, and if they do need any kind of legal or financial help, we just want to make sure we have quite a bit of resources,” said Voice of North co-director Karan Badhesha.

The group’s organizers came up with the idea when they were international students.

“What we noticed because we are immigrants too, from India, we noticed that there was a gap between the associations and [international students],” Batra said. “They always needed someone in between to guide them to those associations. So we act as a platform to guide them there.”

The Voice of North also helped connect students with employers who need part-time help.

Since the group started at the end of May, it’s helped between 80 and 90 international students with various needs.

Badhesha said his native language is Punjabi, but he also knows Hindi and Urdu, and that’s helpful with some of the newcomers.

“All those newcomers, they feel confident talking to us,” he said.

“We know their core issues; we know what they need because we’ve been through that experience as well.”

Badhesha said Voice of North works with community partners and city officials to make Greater Sudbury a welcoming place for newcomers and international students.

“Sudbury is a loving town. We just want to make it better for the immigrants.”