The housing shortage in Canadian cities, especially in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), has been a growing concern for several years. As rents have climbed to unprecedented levels, surpassing what most residents can reasonably afford, the search for root causes has become increasingly urgent. In the process, some have pointed fingers at international students, suggesting that their presence is a significant factor in the housing crunch. However, while international students may contribute to the overall demand for housing, placing the blame on them distracts from the far more complex, systemic issues at play.

It is true that many Ontario colleges, facing funding cuts from the provincial government, have turned to international students to fill the financial gap. A significant portion of these students come from South Asia, and contrary to the stereotype of affluent foreign students, many arrive in Canada supported by their families’ life savings. Some of these families have taken on debt, mortgaged homes, or even sold farmland to give their children the opportunity for a better future abroad.

These students are not typically renting spacious single-family homes or luxury condos. Instead, they often live in overcrowded conditions, crammed into small apartments, sometimes with several people sharing a single room. This modest lifestyle hardly aligns with the image of foreign renters driving up housing costs. Even if we concede that the influx of international students may have a minor impact on the availability of low-cost rentals, their role in the broader housing crisis is marginal at best.

The real roots of the housing problem in cities like Toronto, Richmond Hill, and across North America lie elsewhere. The development patterns that have shaped our urban and suburban landscapes for over half a century are unsustainable. Sprawling subdivisions, car-dependent neighborhoods, and exclusionary zoning have squandered land, burdened municipalities with infrastructure costs they can’t afford, and made it exceedingly difficult to build the kind of dense, affordable housing that urban populations need.

This long-standing approach to development has created housing markets where supply lags behind demand, prices rise inexorably, and lower-income residents are pushed further to the margins. Instead of acknowledging these deeply entrenched planning failures, some have chosen the easier route: scapegoating a vulnerable group of young people simply trying to pursue their education and improve their lives.

Blaming international students for the housing shortage not only misrepresents the reality of their situation but also deflects attention from the urgent need for structural reform. If we are serious about solving the housing crisis, we must focus on the planning policies, zoning laws, and financial decisions that have led us here—not on those who are least responsible.

Ultimately, the housing crisis is a reflection of choices made over decades. It will take equally deliberate, forward-thinking choices to fix it. Let’s resist the temptation to shift blame and instead confront the real causes of the problem head-on.