Inna Abilova, left to right, stands with her mother, Marina Yakovenko, and her sister, Sabina Abilova, who recently arrived in Canada from Ukraine, in Toronto on June 30, 2022. Tiana Martin/The Canadian Press
Sabina Abilova and Andrii Koziura sit at the dinner table in their basement with laptops open, looking for a job that can help them pay next month’s rent.
Ukrainian newcomers arrived in Toronto just a few weeks ago, trying to escape the conflict in their country, and are burning through their savings as they face the high cost of living in the city.
“The prices here are quite high,” says 28-year-old Abilova in an interview. “If we don’t get a job, we won’t be able to stay here for long.”
Housing costs have emerged as one of the main concerns for Ukrainian newcomers arriving under a special federal program announced in March that allows them to work or study in Canada for three years.
Ms Abilova and Mr Koziura were on holiday in Argentina when Russia began invading Ukraine in February. The couple decided to apply for Canada because Ms. Abilova’s sister already lives in Toronto, having arrived as a student eight years ago.
Getting approved for the program was relatively easy, but getting information and support on issues like housing, public transportation and work is difficult, Ms. Abilova says.
“In Ukraine, we had a very good, normal life, and now we have to go and look for help everywhere, beg for help, discounts and everything else, and it’s not a good situation,” she says.
“It’s hard because I didn’t expect Canada to be like this.”
Marina Yakovenko talks with her children Sabina, Timur and Inna Abilova in their rented apartment in Toronto. Tiana Martin/The Canadian Press
Ms. Abilova and Mr. Koziura now live in a two-bedroom basement apartment in west Toronto with Ms. Abilova’s mother and 13-year-old brother, who already had visitor visas for Canada before the war began.
They pay $2,000 a month in rent and are currently relying on savings to cover their expenses, Mr Koziura says.
The couple has applied for $600 a month in social assistance from the Ontario government and a one-time payment of $3,000 from the federal government while they look for work, he says.
Koziura, 27, says he worked as a software product manager in Ukraine and hopes to find work in his field.
“Our original plan was to come here, stay here for a few months and decide where we’re going to stay, how easy it is to stay in Canada, and we still haven’t been able to find a job,” he says.
“The situation with the war is quite complicated. We don’t know when it will end. And we don’t know what our long-term plans are. Will we get citizenship here…will we go back home?’
Igor Mikhalchyshyn, executive director of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, says housing is the No. 1 challenge facing Ukrainian newcomers, especially in Ontario.
Refugee resettlement agencies funded by the federal government are technically not allowed to help newly arrived Ukrainians with housing because those arriving under the special program are not recognized as refugees, he says.
“They don’t have access to the same, say, full apartments or full services that a refugee from anywhere would have,” he says.
“We can call them refugees, [but] they are not technically, legally in the eyes of government-funded agencies, refugees.
His organization and the Ontario Council of Immigrant Serving Agencies wrote last month to federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, urging him to allow settlement agencies to use federal funds to help with housing costs for Ukrainian newcomers.
Mr Mikhalchyshyn says his organization has also pushed for income support for newly arrived Ukrainians.
A spokeswoman for Mr Fraser says the federal government has a program that provides newcomers to Ukraine with a one-time financial assistance of $3,000 for an adult and $1,500 for a child.
“These funds will help Ukrainian citizens and their family members meet their basic needs — such as transportation and long-term housing — when they arrive in Canadian communities and find work,” Aidan Strickland wrote in a statement.
“We recognize that major urban centers across Canada are currently facing difficulties in securing temporary housing this summer, as well as housing challenges from both an affordability and availability perspective.”
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Refugee Council, says the special program for Ukrainians has the advantage of being open to an unlimited number of people, but does not come with the support that government-sponsored refugees typically receive.
“From a policy perspective, it has the advantages of being really fast and open,” she says in an interview.
“[Ukrainian] people might be “okay, fine, we’ll come to Canada and we’ll be able to meet all our needs,” but they weren’t necessarily informed or aware that all they were getting was a work permit and a visitor visa. They don’t get a whole support system.
Mr. Myhalchyshyn of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress says the housing situation for newly arrived Ukrainians is more challenging in Ontario than in other provinces. The median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto was $2,133 in June, data from Rentals.ca shows, compared with $1,538 in Montreal and $1,669 in Halifax.
“Probably more than 60 percent of [Ukrainian] people in Canada arrive in Toronto, in the GTA, and then … struggle to find housing of any kind,” he says.
Ukrainian community groups, including churches and community agencies and organizations, are trying to find foster families, empty apartments and places for emergency shelter, he says.
“There’s just very high demand and very low availability,” he says.
Ontario Labor Minister Monte McNaughton, who is responsible for immigration, says his department is working with other government departments and municipalities to support these Ukrainians.
“Of course it’s a challenge,” he says in an interview.
“We are working with our municipal partners … to identify the housing inventory so that these people have a safe shelter and a safe place here in Ontario.”
According to the federal government, 55,488 Ukrainians arrived in Canada between January 1 and June 26.
The government says it received 343,283 applications under the new program for Ukrainians between March 17 and June 28, and 146,461 were approved.
With files from Holly McKenzie-Sutter
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