There are two articles in The Sil I would like to bring to your attention. One is New City Bylaw Regulates Student Living and the other is Housing

I've commented on both but I would like to get everyone's opinion on this new bylaw.

So what do you think? Good? Bad? Ugly?

Let's get a discussion going. Tell your friends about it too. The students need to know!

Well both articles certainly educate you on both sides of the issue and both draw attention to valid points and concerns...

I'm not sure how I feel. I live on Res right now, but I'm think about moving off-campus next year. I'm definitely going to keep track of this....

Ohh Westdale.. "nice" little Westdale. I understand that sometimes students can be a pain in the ass/very loud, but I'm sorry, that's what you get for living near a big university. Not only that, but 3 to 5 students in a house? Some of the prices landlords are paying around Mac are already ridiculous, so they'll just be making it worse by doing that, which is probobly the point, now isn't it? I have 6 people in my house and we're all paying 400-450ish a month, but then again, we're practically right next to the campus...

Also, when a landlord picks people to live in their house, half the time theyre not actually "picking". Unless their house is fabulous, they usually just take whoever comes along, from my experience...

And speaking of crappy landlords, my friend lived on Norfolk last year and had mice in her house. The landlord didn't believe her or her roommates until he finally saw the mice/mice poop.

Another note is, how will people know that their new tenants are "responsible"? Just becuase you're in a certain program doesn't mean you're any more studious or rowdy then someone else.

Last year around this time I wrote an article about WADS: Westdale residents Against Drunk Students.

Although there are students who destroy property and act like jerks, it really is a very small number of the population, and I truly despise being lumped into that group. I suppose there is truth in the adage that one person can ruin it for everyone else?

However, I do think that licensing landlords is a really, really good idea.

I think the idea is good in some ways but I'm concerned about money. I know our landlord owns several different homes and if he's going to be charged an extra 250 per house each year he's going to increase our rent. I can't afford even a 50 dollar increase, that's a weeks worth of groceries for me.

This whole idea of building student housing, specifically for students is a good idea for me. The issue of that meaning that we're not part of the "Hamilton community" is, in my mind, a useless topic. Most students are here because they go to Mac, not because they wanted to live in Hamilton. Those who DO live here with their families are already part of the Hamilton community. I like my student bubble life, it suits me well for my undergrad years. If I wanted to get involved with the Hamilton community I know that it would mean venturing beyond my little world and seeking out that community. I can do that from wherever I live, whether it be on my street now or in a pre-planned student housing area.

As for Westdale, well I'm sorry that your little community has been taken over by a major university but Sam said it right, Mac is here which means students and you're just going to have to deal with that. Trying to run us out isn't going to work, there are more of us. There are deff. some jerk students out there but they are NOT the majority of us and grouping us all together certainly isn't fair. That's like me saying that just because there are elderly people living in Westdale that everyone who lives in Westdale is therefore senile and backwards. Not fair is it?

I agree with the first article to start licensing the home owners. They should be made more responsible for the houses they rent out to students. If a owner faults, they shouldn't be allowed to rent out homes again for a specified period of time(3-5 years). And if the owners change the house should still remain. From the student point of view I agree it gets more expensive but 30-40 dollars more / year to live in a habitable, safe place is way more important than living in a pest-infected house and getting ill to save those 30-40 dollars. If you can't afford it just go live in downtown, you'll get rooms for 300 dollars too.


On the flipside even rowdy students who drink and vandalize should be punished. They should be banned from all houses in that area until they graduate. They should also be made to pay for vandalization. For the benefit of families that hate Mcmaster students, there should be specific areas within Westdale, where you have no student rentals.

As for the 3/5 students in a house rule. Well there should be a cap on the number of students in a house. I mean its hazardous having 10 students in a house. 7 is the number for me. You cannot have more than 7 bedrooms and therefore 7 people in a house. Then it becomes a mansion. And mansions cannot be in Westdale. Westdale is not ANCASTER.

P.S. I live off-campus too.
That was unfortunately as un-biased as I can get...so DEAL WITH IT!

My house has 10 bedrooms and therefore 10 students. NONE of the bedrooms are "closets," they are all decent size for a student.

The house my sister lives in has 21 rooms and 21 students. Again, the bedrooms are all equal in size and, again, all are a decent size for student life.

Both our houses have functioning fire alarms and easy to find fire exits. Why should our landlords be penalized for the deadbeats? Shouldn't the deadbeats be punished?

The laws are already in place, the government (municipal and provincial) is not enforcing them. Why create a new by law when they can't be bothered (or as McHattie says, they don't have enough people) to enforce them?

I feel the housing license isn't going to do much except to raise the cost of rent for students. Landlords just have to pay the fee to get the license and show 'plans' that they are doing stuff but from what I made from the article it's their responsibility to follow through with their own plans.

If you already have a good landlord then there's no need for the license, they are doing their job and are treating you well. What needs to be addressed are the bad landlords who have rental property only to bring in extra money and don't care about their tenants or the state of the house. These are who we need to target with stricter policies, but all I see happening is that the bad landlords will simply increase their rent to cover the cost of the license, get the license, and then do nothing.

Hey Guys,

This bylaw has nothing to do with safety or improving student housing; there are already laws in place to do those things and we pay taxes for those laws to be enforced. (The province also compensates the city with $75 per student at McMaster for the cost of city services to the McMaster community)

This law fulfils the city's wish to find more cash and fulfils the wishes of the "permanent" residents to drive us out.

The MSU needs to mobilize, but they are more interested in their letters of reference from Peter George than they are concerned about student interests.

I'd love to see students boycott Westdale businesses one day a week to show how important we are to the Westdale community.

- Joey

Brian McHattie replies to the discussion on The Sil website. http://thesil.ca/?p=462#comment-753