More than 500 foreign students have signed up with Humber College in an innovative housing program that links them with seniors in the community.

The college earlier this year teamed up with technology platform SpacesShared to find affordable houses for its many international students, who cannot afford the price of apartments since a one-bedroom can rent for more than $2,000 monthly.

SpacesShared helps older adults who are interested in home-sharing connect with verified student guests, according to the college

“Tackling the issue of affordable housing for students is critical in this important time in their lives,” said Jason Hunter, vice-president of Students and Institutional Planning at Humber.

Students can receive a discount if they agree to perform certain tasks around the home like mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, or even spend time with the seniors and providing companionship, Humber officials said

“The partnership and platform offer an innovative solution that addresses student housing needs in a safe way, while also benefiting our valued seniors living in the community,” he said.

Ian Crookshank, dean of students at Humber College, says students can save money through the pairings, easing the financial pressures they face.

Students who sign up for the program can live with their hosts and pay online and homeowners with vacancies can sign up online, post an ad and connect with students to find a tenant, he said.

With the sky-rocketing price of housing in this city and elsewhere, Humber College is not the only school trying to help its students with housing pressures through pairings with seniors.

Georgian College is using a similar platform, called Homestay, to pair their students with local residents in Barrie. Some students have also been making their own arrangements to stay with seniors.

Students say the arrangements work well and they provide companionship for the seniors.

Awofadeju Olajide Simon, an international student from Nigeria, said when he decided to move to Canada, all of the living options were way out of his budget.

He was told by friends in Canada it would easier to find housing from within the country than writing to landlords in Toronto from Nigeria.

“It wasn’t. I was stressing out for days,“ he said.

Fortunately, one of his professors linked him up with an elderly couple in the city’s east end.

Some seniors have written on social media that they love the idea of renting to students.

“This is just what I was hoping might be a possibility for me,” wrote Suzanne Dick. “I just moved here and I am close to the Lakeshore campus. I am a senior.”

It “is such a super idea. Win! Win,” said Margaret McCarthy.

There is a huge demand for shared affordable housing since Humber College has about 33,000 full-time students, of which 9,300 are international students. There are more than 800,000 international students now studying in Canada.

SpacesShared can be reached online at www.spacesshared.ca

A 25-year-old man was killed after being hit by a car early Friday at The West Mall and Burnhamthorpe Road.

Police said the man was walking from the north side of Burnhamthorpe Road to the south side, on the east side of The West Mall around 4:10 a.m. on October 6.

The victim was hit by a 41-year-old man driving a 2007 gray Honda which was travelling east-bound on the curb lane on Burnhamthorpe Road.

“The vehicle hit the pedestrian while travelling east bound in the curb lane,” police said.

The victim was rushed to a trauma centre, where he was later pronounced dead.

Photos show a silver sedan with front-end bumper damage.

Eastbound Burnhamthorpe was closed at The West Mall for several hours as police investigated.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1900, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.

A 21-year-old woman is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after being struck by a vehicle while crossing Brown’s Line on Friday.

The incident occurred near Browns Line and Jellicoe Avenue at around 3:45 p.m.

Police said a woman was crossing eastbound on Brown’s Line when she was hit by a Volkswagen Passat travelling north on Brown’s Line.

“The Volkswagen made contact with the pedestrian,” officers from Traffic Services said in a release. “The pedestrian was transported to hospital with life-threatening injuries.”

A 36-year-old female driver of the Volkswagen remained at the scene.

Emergency crews arrived to find one person suffering from critical injuries, police said. The victim was taken to hospital via emergency run.

Brown’s Line was closed for several hours as police investigated.

Traffic Services are asking local residents, business or drivers, who have security or dash camera footage of the area or incident to contact investigators.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1900, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.

 

New Toronto residents looking for deals are wondering the fate of a decades-old family-run Biway Zone discount shop that abruptly shut last month.
Locals said there are no signs on the door at the 2950 Lake Shore Blvd. W. discount store and have been trying to find out what happened.
The bargain store and an jointly owned office building at 2970 Lake Shore Blvd. W. are slated for demolition to make way for a new condo development.

The discount store wasn’t an official Biway outpost, but it used to be. It is one of a few Biways left standing.
The store was taken over by a family in 2000 after the chain filed for bankruptcy. It was restocked and renamed Biway Zone.
“We have served the community for a long time, so leaving the community behind is sad and difficult,” Anish Chopra, the owner’s son told Blog TO. “But, at the same time, we are excited to finally retire and see where this new chapter in life will take us.”

The popular store was operating on a monthly rental basis and frequented by many residents looking for a deal on clothing, household, kitchen ware and other goods.
The sites were in 2020 the scene of many protests by community groups who fought against the City to prevent them from being converted into a 100-bed homeless shelter.
An application was submitted to the City of Toronto in 2019 to convert the 2950 and 2970 Lake Shore Blvd. W. properties into a nine storey mixed-use building that will contain 95 residential rental units and retail use.
The proposal would contain 27 studio units, 37 one-bedroom apartments, 15 two-bedroom units and 16 three-bedroom units.
The applicant proposes a total of 32 residential parking spaces in a one- storey underground garage.

Access to the underground garage would be from Eighth Street by an existing private laneway on the north side of the building.
The development would include a storage space for 73 bicycles, of which seven would be short-term and 66 would be long-term.
The proposal was turned down at the time by Etobicoke York Community Council, whose members were of the opinion that it did not conform to bylaws and the area’s Growth Plan.
“The proposal does not conform with the Toronto Official Plan, particularly regarding the avenues, built form and mixed use areas policies,” according to the community council.
“The proposal would establish an undesirable precedent, does not represent good planning and is not in the public interest in its current form,” they ruled.
The applicant was ordered to make some changes before the proposal can be approved.

This is a touching story between two love-struck Toronto pigeons who survived hardships in the wild and would fall in love and have a baby.

The female pigeon suffered burns and singed feathers after a Bathurst Street bridge explosion in downtown Toronto late last year, according to the Toronto Wildlife Centre (TWC).

Toronto police said an explosion occurred last November 27 under a bridge on Bathurst Street and Fort York Boulevard. No one was injured in the explosion which occurred when some propane cylinders were exposed to heat from a fire.

A second bird, her male partner, had his white feathers dyed orange, and caused a flurry of activity from many residents sharing sightings of him on social media, the TWC said in a posting.

‘But just when we thought these two birds couldn’t become more iconic, they surprised us all by having a baby,” Centre officials said.

They said the ‘situation is extremely rare.”

“Although pigeons can lay eggs year-round, they aren’t normally in care long enough to form bonds with one another,” according to the TWC.

Apparently the birds became besties while in captivity.

“But with their lengthy stay, these two became quite close,” the wildlife workers said. “The stealthy lovers created a nest inside a hide box, out of sight from our team.”

They said by the time the well-concealed nest was discovered the baby had hatched from an egg.

”It is extremely rare for patients to lay eggs in care at all,” TWC workers said. “This little pigeon is a one in a million baby!”

A hide box is typically used by small owls and is located very high up in a large aviary,” the Centre said.

“ It is extremely rare for patients to lay eggs in care at all,” workers said. “The dutiful parents are taking good care of the new addition.”

As for the pigeon dyed orange, a TWC team is waiting for the bird to shed his dyed feathers and regrow ones that are in his natural colour through molting.

TWC is dedicated to providing care of the birds in captivity and hope to release the rehabilitated pigeons back into the wild.

How is that for a tender love story from pigeons who had undergone suffering to now have the love of their lives.

The TWC are seeking names of the baby pigeon. They can be reached by e-mail at  access@torontowildlifecentre.com.

The water quality and aquatic habitat conditions in the Etobicoke Creek is poor and contaminated with chlorides from road salt and phosphorous from fertilizers, according to a draft report by the Toronto and Region
Conservation Authority (TRCA).
The draft report states the contaminants include E. coli bacteria from sewage and animal wastes and copper and zinc from
industrial sources or roadways.
“Exceedances of chlorides and nitrates were also observed in groundwater,” the TRCA said in its Etobicoke Creek Watershed Plan that was the subject of two meetings last month.

The report follows outcry from residents over a heavy chemical fire retardant that covered, and is now mostly vacuumed, from watersheds as Humber River and Lake Ontario following a six-alarm factory fire in Rexdale.

The TRCA and GTA municipal governments are working to educate commercial and industrial partners to maintain chemical spills.
They are working “in collaboration with industrial landowners and the province to identify high-risk spill area and implement spill prevention an
contingency plans in accordance with provincial regulation,” the report states.
This will “educate commercial and industrial property owners on effective
maintenance of oil and grit separators, and other pollution control
infrastructure,” the authority wrote.

They are working “to identify sources of microplastics and emerging chemicals of concern, and to work with other levels of government to manage and remove these pollutants from the environment.”
The report said Etobicoke Creek’s “aquatic habitat conditions are poor, and the watershed has a high amount of runoff and in-stream barriers.”
The creek is second annually to the Don River in runoff in all
TRCA watersheds.
“The average habitat rating for fish is ‘fair’ and for benthic
communities is ‘poor,” they said.

Benthic communities are composed of macroinvertebrates, such
as annelids, mollusks, and crustaceans, which inhabit the bottom of estuaries and play a vital role in maintaining sediment
and water quality.
“With increasing urbanization, more sensitive fish species will be replaced
with species more tolerant of disturbance, and benthic communities will shift towards more pollution tolerant species.” the report warned.

Serving young women in the community for many years, the
Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment, has
received a financial boost.
A Resilient Communities Grant from the Ontario Trillium
Foundation (OTF) awarded $162,700 to former MP
Augustine on September 14 which was presented by MPP Christine
Hogarth.
“We are so fortunate to have The Jean Augustine Centre, which is
an invaluable resource for young girls located in our community,”
Hogarth said. “The Young Women’s Empowerment program
contributes every day to the goal of opening up opportunities for young women to achieve their true potential.”
The Resilient Communities Fund supports community-based organizations that deliver programs and services in Ontario and need funding to recover and build capacity, resilience and sustainability.
The grants support organizations as they develop new approaches to generate revenue, start new activities to meet community need, adjust strategies and plans or plan for future challenges.
The mission of the OTF is to build healthy and vibrant communities throughout Ontario by investing in community-based initiatives and strengthening the impact
of Ontario’s non-profit sector. Last year, the OTF invested more than $110 million in 1,022 community projects and services.

Young South Etobicoke entrepreneur Marley Alles is on top of the world after winning a $40,000 grant for her online clothing rental
company.
Alles, who developed a peer-to-peer wardrobe rental app, called rax,
was chosen by Coors Original Legacy Lift in a pitch event for the
prize in Toronto.
She got the idea after being invited to a wedding and thought
that instead of buying a dress and wearing it once she could borrow one from a friend to wear for the day.
“I was very surprised to win,” Alles said. “I was completely
shocked.”

She competed against four other Canadian start-ups, all which
had to submit a 60-second video made on an elevator. Alles
also won a mentorship with Coors family member David
Coors, a board member and vice-president of the international
brewing company.
She now rents items of clothing, shoes and bags to women on
the rax app, an idea that has caught on.
“As a startup, access to capital is one of the hardest things to
obtain and lack of funding is one of the main ways startups
fail,” Alles said “Winning this grant from Coors Original
enables rax to reach new heights that wouldn’t have been possible.”

The start-up consultant for small companies applied for the Coors grant last August and
it paid off after she was chosen as a winner last month.
“We all have a closet full of clothes we’d love to make money on and on the other hand, we often want to wear items once or for a couple of months,” she said.
“Consumer preferences are shifting with disposable income shrinking.”
Alles said the ‘horrible ethical and environmental impacts of the fast fashion industry,’ enabled her to make a difference by empowering individuals to become their own entrepreneurs.
“rax is a community-driven marketplace that redefines the way we consume fashion without hurting your wallet, while saving the planet,” she
said.
Alles said women can make money by lending out their wardrobe to others or save money borrowing other people’s closets.
“It’s a great way to reduce your carbon footprint while finally giving you
access to the closet of your dreams, without the cost associated,” she
asserted.

Her app displays photos of models wearing the fashionable, formal
clothing for women and lists a rental fee. The lender and borrower are then
hooked up and she receives a 20% commission on items being lent.
The company has a website with photos posted of some of the outfits
that can be rented for four days, 10 days, 20 days, a month, three months
or six months.
“We were honored to award the Legacy Lift grant to Marley Alles of
rax after learning more about how she took an inspiring career leap to build a lasting, sustainable business that would create a positive impact for the people of Canada,” said Leslie Malcolm, Senior Director
of Marketing for Molson Global Brands.
Borrowers fill out a form and can pick up or have the item shipped to them, which must be returned cleaned.
You can view some of her rental selection at
www.raxapp.ca