WATERLOO REGION — Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife has sent a letter to Ontario's minister of municipal affairs and housing requesting a provincial strategy to provide suitable and affordable housing for students.

The letter, dated Sept. 30 and obtained by The Record on Friday, was accompanied by seven testimonials from Waterloo Region post-secondary students detailing their poor living conditions, such as bed bug infestations, a lack of proper heating, unanswered maintenance calls and unreturned key deposits worth hundreds of dollars.

"A student housing strategy is critical for ensuring that students have a safe and suitable home away from home," Fife wrote in the letter to Conservative MPP Steve Clark. "The housing conditions (students) describe are situations that no one in the province should have to experience."

She also requested the ministry put measures in place to ensure students have an expedited process to help resolve their complaints quicker and uphold their rights as tenants.

A spokesperson from Clark's office said in an email that the ministry received Fife's letter and the student testimonials on Friday and is reviewing both documents.

Spokesperson Lee Alderson also said the ministry has consulted broadly with the public as part of Ontario's housing supply action plan and heard "many ideas on how to enhance the rental experience for both tenants and landlords. We continue to analyze what we heard as part of our thorough review."

Fife said her office has received student complaints about substandard housing ever since she was first elected in 2012.

But the problem has gained a renewed sense of urgency in recent weeks after an unidentified person or group stole more than 6,000 online maintenance data records from a local rental housing provider and posted them to the web.

The conditions cited in those online records include mould, vermin, heating problems and malfunctioning smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.

"I want to put together a dossier, if you will, that this is a systemic issue," Fife said in an interview. "The city can only do so much."

Eleven other people with a stake in student housing conditions were also sent a copy of the letter, including the presidents of Conestoga College, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University; Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky; and the presidents of the student unions at Conestoga, UW and WLU.

Fife is organizing a meeting in November to help educate students about their housing rights, but she noted that students are constantly moving into and out of the community, making it difficult to help them fully understand the options they have.

"You need to build it into the orientation that students have," she said. "But at the end of the day there's no clear pathway for them to take when they run into issues with landlords."

The City of Waterloo has said that tenants have the right to call the city and ask for an inspection if a landlord does not comply with a maintenance request in a reasonable time. They also have the option of taking their complaints to the Landlord and Tenant Board, but those complaints can take weeks or months to resolve.

Jaworsky said the long timelines are an issue, especially for student renters who might move every 12 months or less.

"It really isn't set up to help students," he said of the Landlord and Tenant Board. "It simply takes too long."

UW fourth year student Sylvia Skoruch has been working with Fife's office to compile the testimonials, and also meeting with city officials to demand improvements at the municipal level.

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That includes city-run social housing projects to help lower commercial rental rates, proactive enforcement by city staff at the 25 largest student housing buildings in the city, and laws stating that rooms cannot be rented or leased until the building is complete.

"We strongly believe the municipality could take some possible action here to help fix the issue," Skoruch said in an email. She plans to attend Monday's council meeting with other students to further raise their concerns with city politicians.

"The goal of this action is to find a sympathetic city councillor and have them help champion our issues to the relevant institutions. We also want to continue the discussion on student housing and not let this topic die out," she said.

Jaworsky said there are challenges in addressing many of their suggestions at the municipal level, but he's proud to see students fighting for their housing rights.

Student housing issues have been front and centre in Waterloo in recent weeks after the stolen maintenance logs from local rental management company Accommod8u were put online in early September.

Those claiming responsibility for the security breach said they are tenants of Accommod8u and they hope the information helps improve living conditions in the area. They refused to identify themselves. Police are investigating.

The data is for units inside buildings on Albert Street, Columbia Street, Sunview Street and Lester Street, an area of predominantly student housing near the two universities.

On Sept. 23, dozens of renters also rallied outside Waterloo City Hall to complain about housing conditions.

jjackson@therecord.com

Twitter: @JamesDEJ