City of Kitchener reviewing Lodging House bylaw

With a likelihood of more affordable housing units being built in Kitchener, the city wants to make sure that their licensing bylaws align with the needs of the community and the strategies set out by staff.

The legislation that the City of Kitchener is looking at specifically is the Lodging House Bylaw. A lodging house, also known as a boarding house or rooming house, is a rental unit where four or more people can rent rooms to live in but have shared spaces like a kitchen, bathroom or living room.

Lodging houses are currently the only type of property that is licensed by the city, but they are considering expansion to other short-term rental properties. This could include licensing rentals of accommodations, accessory units, driveways or parking spots and pools or backyards.

Manager of Licensing, Helen Fyalactou told CityNews why the bylaw is being reviewed.

“The bylaw has not been updated since 2005 and lodging houses have already been scheduled for a review,” said Fyalactou. “We want to make sure there is still health and safety measures in place that have a level of protection for residents and tenants that reside in these properties, and to make sure its aligning with some of the other City of Kitchener strategies like the Housing For All strategy.”

The City of Kitchener is looking for the community’s input. They are consulting through a five-to-seven minute survey. It can be found on the Engage Waterloo Region website.

The survey is looking to learn what tenants, landlords, and neighbours of lodging houses are seeing in rental units and what is important to them. Fylactou shared examples like cost of rent, location, safety, and maintenance.