Source: Niagara This Week

When Pam Pierschalski and her family moved into their south St. Catharines home last summer, she thought she had found the perfect place to raise her kids.

The family is renting a house on Marlene Drive, a quiet residential street with a nearby ravine. Briardale Elementary School is just steps away, and its small student population means her children, nine-year-old Max and five-year-old Erin, get the extra attention that comes with small classrooms.

Pierschalski and her husband, Gary, thought they would be staying here for years.

Then in November, about six months into their lease, the owner had to sell the house, and the new owner had different ideas.

The home is now being rented out by a company called Student Rentals 101.

“We were informed as of June, at the end of our (one-year) lease, they were going to rent it out to students,” she said.

Pierschalski learned that just a year after her family was uprooted, they would have to move again.

The reasons seem pretty clear. Pierschalski said she pays $1,100 a month, plus heat and hydro. But the house could be divided up into five or six rooms, with each one going for around $400 or more per month.

This Week contacted a company representative, who confirmed the home is in its inventory, but otherwise declined to comment.

Pierschalski said she and her husband have tried locating another house to rent in the area, but so far have only found other student housing. The house she’s in now was rented to students before they moved in until the then owner decided to get out of that market.

“It’s hard to find a house for a family,” she said, adding it looks like they’ll have to move out of the neighbourhood and yet again change their children’s school.

“My kids are very good, and they can adapt,” she said. “But still, I don’t want to do this again.”

It’s far from the first single-family home converted into student housing in the area. Sheila White, who lives across the street, said the same thing happened next door to her.

“It doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t sound right,” she said.

“It just sounds like they’re discriminating against families.”

Incidentally, numerous court rulings have stated municipalites are not able to dictate what constitutes a single family household, preventing the regulation of student housing.

Last December, the Ontario Human Rights Commission forwarded the city a letter which had been sent to the City of Oshawa, where an earlier court decision supported interpreting student housing as lodging houses. This ruling meant Oshawa could create a bylaw to permit only single family housing in that area.

The letter warned against bylaws which could be seen to exclude students from a neighbourhood.

Last week, Coun. Andrew Gill, who represents a ward with many such houses, expressed frustration with the situation.

“It seems that every time we discuss student housing, we get a letter from the Ontario Human Rights Commission,” he said.

Fellow ward councillor Joe Kushner brought up the matter of family homes being converted to student housing, asking for legal advice on whether this could constitute discrimination.

Interviewed afterwards, he said if the trend continues, it may be damaging to the area.

“It changes the nature of the neighbourhood,” he said, adding a shortage of young families could have an impact on schools.