As Canadians struggle to keep up with rising costs, ‘unconventional’ living arrangements are becoming more common.

Earlier in February, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown announced that 25 students were found to be living illegally in an apartment in a discovery made by the city’s bylaw department. Brown stated at a Committee of Council meeting that there could be about 100,000 residents living in illegal rental units in Brampton and the city intends to crack down on the issue, Toronto Sun reported.

Another incident out of Brampton turned out to be even more shocking than the first with the Toronto Sun again reporting about a home renting out multiple rooms with some tenants allegedly living in a car in the driveway. A post about the listing was also shared on Reddit’s Toronto Real Estate page earlier in Feb.

Then there are other rental listings, each more eyebrow-raising than the next, an alarming trend routinely documented by BlogTO.

A Kjiji posting recently advertised a shared bedroom — shared with a few other tenants — for $555 per month in North York, BlogTO reported earlier this month. Per that report, the listing “specifically calls for ‘two or three team player students,’ ‘young professionals,’ male or female, who can take advantage of a ‘bundle discount’ for sharing the bunk bed.”

Then there was a $500 per month rental listing where a bed was right in the middle of a kitchen in Scarborough. “We are looking for a girl in a sharing room,” the listing read, BlogTO reported in Feb.

‘People truly don’t have any other options’

The housing problem is so bad in Brampton, a city west of Toronto with a population of about 650,000, that the city has launched a pilot program to regulate rentals and require landlord licensing, aiming to address the housing crisis and abuses of the temporary student visa program.