Choosing where to live is one of Humber students’ biggest financial decisions. With on-campus residence costing over $13,000 per year and off-campus rental prices ranging from $900 to $2,000 per month, students must weigh convenience against affordability.
It’s been an age-old question when it comes to the more practical housing option surrounding Humber Polytechnic; the debate over whether residence or off-campus housing offers better value has never been more relevant.
Humber’s north campus is located in Etobicoke North as part of the Greater Toronto Area, featuring on-campus residence as well as off-campus options. Their residence features dorm-style rooms for over 1,000 students at the north campus, while off-campus housing varies by listing.
This isn’t just a consideration for domestic students, but international students as well. Olivia Boukydis, the Community Social Services program head, says that students are having to work harder today to make money in order to afford living in the Greater Toronto Area. “I think certainly post-pandemic, we’ve seen, let’s call it a discrepancy between the quality of people’s lives and their income and their ability to be able to meet the standards of what it would mean to live a life full of quality”.
Humber collaborates with Places4Students.com, a platform connecting students with off-campus housing options. While the exact start date of this partnership isn’t specified in available sources, Places4Students.com has been operational since at least 2003. As for Residence, their buildings at the north campus opened in 2004.
“I wish the information and the differences between the two housing options were highlighted better by the school. Humber partners with housing partners, but the differences in pricing and factors aren’t readily available”, says Brycen Kaye, a second-year student living in residence.
When renting off campus, it needs to be remembered that leases tend to last a year, so one is paying for twelve months of living, rather than 8 for residence.
But does that mean it’s more expensive to live off campus? Well, if you subtract the $2350 price for a meal plan, you’re looking at $10,600 for the 8 months, which translates to paying a rent of $883 a month for the twelve months. So if a student is looking for similar pricing off-campus, around $900 a month or lower is what to aim for.
Currently, Humber’s off-campus housing partner has 16 listings as of March 19th, 2025, with an average rent of $900 a month.
It’s important for these things to be displayed to students before making a big decision such as where to live. For example, when living in residence, students pay by the semester, for a total of eight months. However, a meal plan is required to be purchased in order to live on campus.
“The meal plan was one of the bigger reasons I got out of residence. I wanted the opportunity to eat the kinds of foods I want without having to fork over between two and three thousand dollars on food I may not want to eat on a certain day. It’s also a huge game-changer being able to have a full kitchen to be able to cater to my eating habits”, says Tanner Griffiths, a second-year Justice Studies student at the University of Guelph-Humber.
Meal plans, while mandatory, are set at different prices depending on the size a resident prefers. The minimum required is $2,350, while the largest a student can buy is set at $3400.
While on-campus residence offers a set cost and meal plan options, many students like Griffiths choose off-campus housing to gain more flexibility in their living arrangements. However, renting outside of residence presents its own set of challenges, from fluctuating rental prices to overcrowded living spaces that can impact the overall living experience.
Landlords can offer living in student housing in places with as many as fifteen people under one roof, as long as it abides by the Toronto city Bylaw that the maximum number of people living in a habitable room cannot exceed one person for each nine square metres of habitable room floor area.
This means landlords can stuff as many people as they want under one roof. For reference, that’s 20 people in a 2,000 square foot home.
“I’ve gone to showings with some of my friends to look at places to live next year. When we were looking around, we noticed that most of the houses had no living rooms,” says Kaye. “All the living rooms were taken out and bedrooms were put in. And I don’t think it’s really practical to live in a place like that, just to be cooped up in your room the whole time”.
“It’s really disappointing that that is even an issue that we have to debate and that we have to have conversations about, because if you were to take the student out of it, for example, and you were to insert older adults in that equation, would we be supportive of regulated institutions just cramming people in to be able to generate income,” says Boukydis.
Ultimately, the decision between on-campus and off-campus housing boils down to balancing cost, convenience, and personal preference. While on-campus residence offers stability and ease, off-campus housing can provide more flexibility, but often at the cost of overcrowded conditions and unpredictable rental prices.
“The choice of where to live during your time at Humber depends on the type of person you are. No right decision can be made until all the proper precautions are taken and options are considered”, says Griffiths.
