Please go to our page to create an online application. Note that we have an extensive waiting list and cannot guarantee when we will be able to offer you an apartment.

It can take a year or more from the date we receive your application before we can offer you an apartment. Please contact us three months before your preferred move-in date to discuss your status on the waiting list and possible vacancies at that time.

As long as you are actively enrolled and registered in a full-time program, have your family living with you, and are paying your rent promptly, you can remain in your apartment.

You need to document your marital/family status, your full time enrolment status, and financial ability:

Marriage certificate or common law affidavit (affidavit must be combined with other document/s showing partners live together)

Children’s information, e.g. birth certificates; if you are a single parent we require legal custody documents confirming you have at least 50% custody

Financial documentation, e.g. bank statements, loans, bursaries, scholarships

Proof of academic registration

Visas & family’s airline tickets confirming their arrival date if they are not already living here

Legal photo ID, e.g. driver’s license, passport, PR card (we do not accept informal photos, e.g. wedding).

No, Student Family Housing is reserved for U of T students with families, i.e. partner and/or children, because there are many other residence options for single students, in addition to off-campus housing.

Priority is given to students in full-time degree programs with families, so it is highly unlikely we will be able to offer you an apartment. Although you are welcome to apply online, we recommend that you contact Housing Services at http://www.studentlife.utoronto.ca/hs, Postgraduate Medical Education office, http://www.pgme.utoronto.ca/ and the School for Graduate Studies office, http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/postdoctoralfellows/Pages/default.aspx, for further assistance.

(prospective) How to update my application – information/defer date/change preferences – Email your requests to apply.familyhousing@utoronto.ca and we will update your application for you.

(both) Requests for method of payments – We accept money orders, bank drafts and wire transfers for the initial deposit to hold an apartment offer. Once you are a resident, you can pay by personal cheque, pre-authorized monthly debit withdrawal, or bank draft. We are unable to accept credit cards, e-transfers or ACORN payment.

(prospective) What is the duration of the lease – The leases are 12 months, but we allow residents to move out at any point with two months’ Notice to Vacate. At the end of the 12-month lease, as long as you are still eligible, you can sign to extend the agreement.

If you are finishing your program and your partner is registered in a full-time UofT degree program, please give us a copy of your partner’s registration so we can switch the primary names on your lease, and you can then remain in residence.

Please note that having permission to take a leave from your studies does not mean you can continue to live in residence. Maternity/Parental Leave: you will need to provide us with documentation of the birth of the baby. The maximum time for a parental leave to still be able to live in residence is one year. Medical: we require a letter from Accessibility Services confirming that it is necessary to take a medical leave of up to one semester. Note: If you are taking a leave in order to pursue an employment opportunity, because you are academically required to take a leave, or have simply chosen to do so for personal reasons, you cannot stay and must submit your Notice to Vacate.

No one is automatically entitled to a transfer. You can only apply for an apartment transfer if your family is growing, you have lived in that unit for a minimum of one year, and if you keep your apartment clean, in good condition, and have paid your rent on time. Note that it typically takes 1 – 1.5 + years to be offered an apartment. For more information and to download the transfer application, please visit our page.

You will need to provide a Notice to Vacate. Please contact the Residence Office to get a copy of or to submit the required Notice to Vacate forms.

You are not permitted to install or use any additional appliances or change fixtures, including washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, bidet and more. These overload the plumbing and electrical in the building, and they cause significant problems like power outages, flooding of dirty water into other apartments, scalding hot water in the bath or shower, lack of hot water, no water pressure, and more. 

Not permitted, see above.

There is no central air conditioning. If you wish to purchase and have an air conditioner installed, please contact the Residence Office.

When your child is born or while your child is pre-school age, a grandparent can come and stay for up to six months at a time to help. Note that your parent(s) must be registered at the Residence Office.

You should contact the Family Care Office for information about daycares on campus and off-campus, and how to apply familycare.utoronto.ca

Not under any circumstances. You will be evicted for subletting or having unauthorized people staying in your apartment.

No. We receive no funding from the University of Toronto, the City of Toronto, or the government.

On site 24/7 security. Security assists with locker requests, move-ins and move-outs, putting elevators on service. Security does regular patrols inside and outside the buildings and deals with noise complaints and other building incidents.

Indoor and outdoor bike parking is available at 35 Charles St. Bike storage is limited and you may be placed on a wait list. Bike storage is arranged through the residence office.

On-site, well equipped laundry facility are available at both buildings which consists of high efficiency front and top load washers and commercial grade dryers. Cash to card machines are available in each laundry room. Every tenant is given a laundry card when they move in.

On-site daycare facility, independently run by George Brown College.

All apartments are equipped with phone, internet and cable outlets. There is no need to run any extra cable work when you move in. Tenants who are seeking to book their service setups are advised to schedule these bookings to take place during our regular office business hours. This is in order for us to verify identity of the technicians, screen for COVID-19 exposure, and to issue keys and identification badges while they are working on site. Unfortunately, we cannot accommodate service setup requests after hours or on weekends/holidays as our security staff are unable to verify, screen, and issue keys and badges.

Parking in the underground garage is available at 35 Charles St W for residents and is paid on a monthly basis. Parking is arranged through the residence office.

Weekly pest control treatment is available to residents, by request to the Residence Office (phone, email, and in-person). Multiple treatment options are available, and assistance with treatment preparation will be provided by staff. For more information visit Pest Control.

On-site Maintenance Staff consists of a team of 5 staff members, working multiple shifts, to provide routine and emergency maintenance service such as plumbing, electrical, and other general repairs. Preventative Maintenance projects are coordinated annually by Operations Staff. Emergency Maintenance issues are responded to by maintenance staff, on-site security staff, and on-call operations staff, who can be reached directly, and provide 24/7 coverage and response. For more information visit Maintenance Repairs.

Resident work order requests are submitted to the Residence Office by way of the Online Maintenance Request System. If additional assistance is required, residents are encouraged to call, email, or visit the office in person, during regular office hours. Maintenance staff will be dispatched to address resident work orders, and will coordinate any follow-up repairs with contractors, as needed. For more information visit Maintenance Repairs.

*Please note indoor spaces are currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions* Our buildings have a number of spaces available for student families to use. Residents can book our recreation room on the 2nd floor of 35 Charles for parties and gatherings, or the meeting room on the 3rd floor of 30 Charles for student groups and meetings (no food permitted). In addition to the recreation room in 35 Charles, we also have a lounge space that is open to all residents from 8am until 11pm each day. Our outdoor areas include the rooftop garden on the 3rd floor of 30 Charles and the playground area on the south side of 35 Charles – both of these are non-bookable. All spaces are available to all residents, regardless of building of residence.

*Please note indoor spaces are currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions*In order to book the Meeting Room, located at 30 Charles Street W., or the Recreation Room, located in 35 Charles Street W., you will need to complete the application form found at the Residence Office and return it to the Residence Office staff. For more details on booking rules and details visit Common Room Reservations.

• Enhanced staff training
• Physical distancing
• Plexiglass barriers where possible at points of service
• Floor markers and directional signage in high traffic areas
• Increased hand sanitizer locations
• Wellness checkpoints
• Making use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Cleaning and Disinfection
• Enhanced cleaning, sanitization and disinfection in high traffic areas and high-touch surfaces

Provincial regulations and public health guidance now require post-secondary institutions to implement COVID-19 health screening for anyone coming to campus. This means that all members of our community, including staff, and students, must complete a self-assessment each day they visit any one of the three U of T campuses or any other property owned or operated by U of T.  There are two ways to complete the required self-assessment and generate a risk status each time you come to U of T: by using UCheck, or by completing a paper-based or offline self-assessment log. Please visit this COVID-19 self-assessments page for more information.

Everyone with symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g., fever, cough, difficulty breathing, etc) should stay home, not work, self-isolate and complete a self-assessment using the UCheck web portal. A number of dedicated assessment centres have been established across the Greater Toronto Area to facilitate assessment and testing. Information on locations is available on local public health websites, including Toronto Public Health.

UofT offers a number of services and resources that are relevant to our student families. It is important to note that some services are open to only UofT students, while some extend their services to partners. A list of many of these resources can be found here Services on Campus. If you have a question about any resources, or are unsure who to contact, please reach out to your Residence Advisor.

Student Family Housing has a residence life team that includes seven residence advisors who are available via office hours to answer questions residents have about the building, campus and community. They are trained on supporting students with campus and community resources, as well as supporting residents’ mental health and wellbeing. They provide a thorough orientation to the building for new residents, as well as regular educational programming for building residents.

Our Residence Life team has put together a list of community resources to connect students to the city, campus, health care, local schools, etc found at Getting to know Toronto.

For more information, please visit us at Contact.

Student Family Housing can be found on Facebook, Instagram (@sfhreslife) and and Twitter (@SFHResLife). We also keep an in-house weekly blog and a virtual bulletin board of relevant posters from our residence, campus and community

Your RA has a community email address that is checked regularly – this is the main form of correspondence with residents. If a resident would like to have a conversation, RAs are now holding virtual office hours via ZOOM. From 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm each evening, visit Zoom.us and go to “join a meeting”. Enter meeting ID 327 – 116 – 8614 and password 095407 to enter the waiting room. Conversations will be limited to 10 minutes if there is somebody waiting for a meeting. Please wait patiently with your RA via video or audio conference. Not available during this time? Contact your RA at their community email address to set up a meeting time of mutual convenience.

When you have an ongoing complaint or neighbour concern (i.e., noise, smoking, water pressure, pest control), it’s a good idea to reach out to your RA to make them aware of the situation. It’s still essential to start with a security report if it’s a noise or a smoking complaint, as these reports can either solve a one-time problem, or create a record of an ongoing problem. The RA or RLC can work towards finding a longer-term solution once the security reports are gathered. Please contact your RA if your ever hesitant about who should be contacted in a particular situation, and your RA will be happy to point you in the right direction.

You do have to register but this is typically done in person. The Drop-in Centre is located on the second floor of 30 Charles Street West (go left off the elevators and around the corner). Registration forms are simply filed in hard copy to ensure that we have names, addresses and phone numbers available should they be necessary.

The hours of the Drop-in Centre are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. In the winter months we also host a more casual drop-in on Sunday afternoons. Typically, Tuesdays are delegated to infants, under 18 months but we do open the room across the hall for older children and their parents to visit.

In our Recreation and Community area of Student Family Housing we offer a variety of programs, trips and events for both adults and children.

Adults enjoy yoga, fitness, dance classes, games nights, and more.

We offer educational, fitness and hands-on programs for the older children, such as a tutoring program, art and drama and Children’s Boot Camp. For the Pre-school children we have a lively and popular parent and child Drop-in Program run by a registered Early Childhood Education staff and some of our student staff. This Drop-in is open from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. from Monday to Friday as well as a Sunday afternoon program in the winter months. We also have music and movement programs for toddlers and preschoolers as well as other programs that meet the needs of this age group. All programs are provided at no extra cost to students living in Student Family Housing.

Events – throughout the year we host several major events. We encourage all of our student families to come together and attend. Some of the most popular events include the Spring Garden Festival which takes place on the Roof Top Garden at 30 Charles Street West. This event has become popular since it includes face painting, art projects, a giant mural that all the children help paint, games and activities with prizes, planting all the spring and summer annual flowers in our garden beds, and some great treats like freshly popped popcorn, candy floss, snow cones and other tasty treats.

Our Annual Summer Picnic – this is an off-site event that takes place every August. We travel by bus to a water park in Bowmanville, Ontario and once there, families can spread out and have picnics on their own or join in the fun-filled picnic games and barbeque that we hold for all. There is a lovely child-friendly water park as well as a bigger park with water slides for older children and adults. This picnic has been a family favourite for several years now.

Fall Harvest Festival – this event also takes place in our Roof Top Garden and includes a variety of fall harvest items such as zucchini and carrot muffins, mini-pumpkin carving, our beloved face painting and a variety of other fall themed games and activities. It’s usually held in mid-October so we encourage families to bundle up and enjoy one of the cooler fall days with us outdoors.

Haunted Halloween – Each year there is a different theme and our staff go to work to create an amazing event with ghosts, ghouls and creatures that reflect that year’s theme. We then invite the community to join us in an evening of laughter, ghostly encounters and fun as they go through a haunted maze. We give out Halloween treats and encourage children and adults to dress up in their favourite costumes for this event. It continues to be one of our most popular annual events and the staff look forward to it as much, if not more, than the families who attend it. We even have volunteers and children who have lived here come back for the night to help out with this event due to its popularity.

Trips – each year we plan a variety of trips throughout the year, but especially during the summer months, to support and enrich our student family’s experiences while living at Student Family Housing. Some of our annual trips in the past have included strawberry picking, the Metro Zoo, a variety of water parks, Ice Skating, African Lion Safari, Centre Island, the Royal Ontario Museum, fall apple picking, the CN Tower, Fire Hall visits, Riverdale Farm and a variety of other trips.

We accept money orders, bank drafts and wire transfers for the initial deposit to hold an apartment offer. Once you are a resident, you can pay by personal cheque, pre-authorized monthly debit withdrawal, or bank draft. We are unable to accept credit cards, e-transfers or ACORN payment.

Where can I find out more about rental fees? Here.

What are the rental rates? Here.

Many parts of the Residential Tenancies Act do apply to Student Family Housing, but there are exemptions with respect to eligibility, subletting, signing Termination Agreements/Notices to Vacate, and rent.

Yes, we are not required to limit the annual rent increase to the Ontario Provincial Rent Increase Guideline. We apply an increase in rent based on the operating expenses, maintenance costs, utilities, apartment renovation costs, and more.

Rent increases on September 1st each year, except in 2021 for current tenants.

Contact the Residence Office to let them know and discuss your options.

Heat, electricity, and hot water are included in the rent. Parking, laundry, internet, cable and phone are not included.

Yes, there is a rent freeze in 2021 for people currently living in Student Family Housing.