Inflation and extremely low vacancy rates, paired with rising house and rent prices, has caused Kingston to enter a housing crisis. This institution city contains Queen’s University, St. Lawrence College, the Royal Military College, Kingston General Hospital, and federal prisons which creates a unique high pressure on the housing market. All these institutions are impactful but specifically, the student rental demand steals many housing options to lower income families. Furthermore, a particular influencer to this issue involves a stream of retired seniors from the Greater Toronto Area who are leaving the large urban city and buying condo apartments in Kingston. With this demand, the city is being forced to majorly expand and intensify housing options as they are being bought quickly. With stable finances, these retired seniors and established individuals are not the ones struggling; consequently they are actually limiting house options for everyone else. The problem impacts the younger generations and low income families that can’t pay increasing rent or afford down payments. Furthermore, Kingston contains a large homeless population that is growing due to the status of the housing market. Government has noted that this is a current problem for Kingston, however they are lacking impactful policies to fix the issue. The few current housing projects aren’t equipped to help the multitude of people who are requesting aid. People need homes now! Not in a few months, not in a year. If you would like to contribute to showing the City of Kingston that changes must be made today, please sign the petition. Every signature is valuable!