A community located between Walkley Road and Heron Road have the highest number of overcrowded homes, according to an analysis of data obtained from Statistics Canada.
The National Household Survey, conducted in 2011 showed 575 households in the Heron Gate area were deemed “not suitable” according to National Occupancy Standards.
A home is considered suitable if it has enough bedrooms for the number of people living there. Age, sex and relationship between occupants also play a role.
The homes in this area account for just under 30 per cent of the total number of overcrowded homes in Ottawa recorded in the survey.
An area near Bayshore Park contained the second highest number of overcrowded homes, 560 of them not meeting the suitability standard.
Jean Cloutier, the councillor for Alta Vista ward said he’s aware of the issue.
“It is a community that has a bit of a vulnerable population. It has a lot of immigrants and new Canadians that live there,” he said.
“Some of the new arrivals to Canada are so large that I’m sure that translates into a statistic that would be called ‘not suitable’ in terms of the number of bedrooms for the number of people living there.”
Last year, Timbercreek Asset Management, delivered eviction notices to some residents in the area to build new rental units.
A member of Ottawa ACORN, a group that advocated to delay the evictions, said half of their members were evicted in the area.
“Now it’s just a blob of vacant land being developed for high end rentals,” they said in an email.
But residents in the Heron Gate community aren’t the only ones affected by overcrowding.
Fernandez said she felt nervous about finding her own place to live and settled for a house her friends had already picked out.
Fernandez said she knows a lot of other students living in a similar situation.
Cloutier said it’s important for people to have enough space to live, but acknowledged some choose to live in a more crowded space.
“There is comfort there because there are friends and neighbours that might speak the same language that they might be acquainted with,” he said.
“I think it’s important that people are able to make the choices that are appropriate for them.”