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As noted in the report, the OHRC conducted surveys as part of this inquiry. After the OHRC published its surveys, the City of Waterloo raised a concern that landlord surveys stated that the rental housing licensing bylaw imposes a 150m separation distance on lodging houses. The City clarified that the separation distance does not apply to all lodging houses in the city, and also that the City’s zoning bylaw (and not the rental housing licensing bylaw) imposes separation distances.
The City also raised concerns about a statement on landlord surveys that the bylaw imposes “certain caps on the number of renters in a rental unit that is not a lodging house.”
The OHRC followed up with landlords to clarify the minimum separation distance requirement, and to clarify that by stating that the bylaw imposes “certain caps on the number of renters in a rental unit that is not a lodging house,” the OHRC means that “the rental housing bylaw creates certain caps on the number of renters in a rental unit that is not a lodging house because [i] bedrooms that are for rent must have a minimum of 7 m2 per occupant (exceeding Building Code requirements), and [ii] there must be no more than 4 bedrooms in total.”
The OHRC has quoted in this report only the people it was able to reach with these clarifications and where applicable has included the additional comments they provided in the follow-up communication.
The City also raised a concern that tenant and organization surveys stated that the rental housing licensing bylaw imposes a 150m separation distance on lodging houses. The OHRC has not quoted any tenants or organizations in this report with respect to minimum separation distances. In any case, the OHRC followed up with people quoted in the report to ensure that the clarification did not change any of their answers.