Councillor calls out Ontario college after learning student lives with 13 people

A Waterloo Regional councillor says he will be sending a letter to Conestoga College’s president after speaking to a student who was living in a house with 13 other  people in a situation he described as “inhumane and down right unsafe.”

Kitchener councillor Michael Harris issued a series of tweets on Tuesday after he spoke with a student who was hauling a chair down the street.

This is inhumane and down right unsafe. I’ll be writing John Tibbits (President – Conestoga College ) on behalf of the Kitchener Residents I serve who have expressed great displeasure in the lack of housing offered for international students attending Doon Campus.

— Michael Harris (@MichaelHarrisWR) <a href=«https://twitter.com/MichaelHarrisWR/status/1757574592170709425?ref_src=» https:>February 14, 2024

He told Global News that he was collecting his mail from a community mailbox when he spotted the student.

“I saw down the street there was this guy carrying a chair down the street with a bunch of parcels or packages,” Harris said.

“He kind of stopped not too far from me and put the chair down to take a bit of a break and me being me, I went up to him and said, ”Hey, what’s going on here? What are you doing?’”

That began a conversation between the two, in which the Kitchener councillor was told that the man was from India and was studying at the nearby main campus of Conestoga College

“I kind of knew roughly whereabouts he was heading, offered to give him a hand and I just asked him, I said, ‘What’s your situation there?’” Harris explained. “How many people are you actually living with? And he told me 13.”

Harris said he was floored by that news although at the same time he noted that there has been a large influx of international students into his area