WARNING: This story comprises sexually express language and particulars of sexual coercion. It might have an effect on those that have skilled sexual violence or know somebody affected by it.
The rental advert on Craigslist affords up one bed room with “a heat mattress out there.” However as an alternative of a price ticket, it comes with an outline of who qualifies to sleep there — a “younger petite feminine” trying to escape the chilly.
When a Market journalist, posing as a scholar in want of housing, responded to the itemizing and met the person behind it, he revealed the true value.
“We idiot round a bit of bit right here and there,” he stated. “When you’re not into really having intercourse, that is cool. We will do different issues,” he added, earlier than naming the precise sexual acts he anticipated in trade for staying in his dwelling rent-free.
A Market investigation discovered that advertisements providing shelter in trade for intercourse are usually not solely frequent on common rental websites, however in addition they typically goal younger ladies and worldwide college students particularly. Whereas some advertisements are express about their calls for, others are extra delicate, placing unsuspecting responders in danger, advocates for ladies warn.
Soliciting intercourse for housing is illegitimate in Canada, however additionally it is a rising pattern, in keeping with Brampton Regional Coun. Rowena Santos, notably because the housing disaster makes it more and more tough to seek out an inexpensive place to dwell.
Santos started drawing consideration to the problem final yr after an inventory that supplied free hire in trade for “a friends-with-benefits” relationship went viral. Nevertheless, there was some skepticism concerning the advert’s authenticity. When requested for remark by a neighborhood newspaper, the director of Small Possession Landlords of Ontario stated it was seemingly pretend.
“I’ve a tough time believing it,” Kevin Costain stated, including that anybody from any nation might have posted it.
So Market got down to take a look at whether or not related affords had been actual and what occurs when somebody responds, wanting into 20 such advertisements discovered on on-line platforms like Craigslist and Fb Market. Half of the advertisements the staff discovered had been overtly solicitous, utilizing phrases like “pals with advantages” and “live-in girlfriend,” signalling expectations of intercourse in trade for housing. The opposite half had been extra covert, hinting at different residing conditions with out explicitly mentioning sexual preparations.
Each inquiry made to the ten overt advertisements obtained a response, with eight responders confirming that they anticipated intercourse as fee.
In a single case, the individual renting their dwelling requested for “a nude image and age” only for the applying.
One other responded saying: “I am not searching for a girlfriend. Just a few enjoyable sometimes when the necessity arises.”
Not one of the people behind the advertisements recognized themselves, and most refused to offer a cellphone quantity, preferring to speak anonymously by the rental platform.
A CBC Market investigation goes undercover to make clear the troubling pattern of utilizing Canada’s housing disaster to focus on younger ladies, and even worldwide college students, with ‘intercourse for hire’ affords.
One of many advertisements Market discovered
Whereas some advertisements clarify what’s anticipated, others use extra delicate, intentionally imprecise language.
The ten covert advertisements Market responded to had been extra nebulous, describing preparations for “open-minded” younger ladies and college students who could also be “combating housing,” with the listings providing beneficial alternatives or acts of assist.

Janine Benedet, a lawyer and professor at College of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard Faculty of Legislation, says younger ladies can unwittingly stroll into these conditions as a result of the advertiser’s intent will not be at all times apparent.
“Possibly the girl who solutions the advert is not fairly positive what’s being proposed,” she stated. “She’s hopeful it may be a real supply of lodging, after which, you recognize, she’s lured into this association.”
Half of the covert advertisers, as soon as contacted, revealed their true expectations — intercourse in trade for housing — with some sending express messages after only a few exchanges.
A Craigslist advertiser providing a free room to a “younger scholar combating housing” responded to a journalist’s inquiry: “To remain free in my place and simply to think about you, you’ll have to suck my penis.”
One other advertiser — who had been in search of a feminine searching for “low-cost hire or assist” — steered he’d cowl college bills, together with free hire, in return for “ongoing intercourse” in personal messages. He later adopted up with an image of a penis, including: “I am skilled and it may really feel good.”
Undercover assembly
In a single case, an undercover Market journalist met with the Craigslist advertiser behind this itemizing: “Heat mattress out there for a younger petite feminine … get out of the chilly, come keep heat woman.”
In the course of the assembly he revealed that the mattress, which might be shared with him, would include some “playing around,” and he proposed intimate acts like oral intercourse and “finger play” as acceptable types of fee.
Describing it as a “friends-with-benefits” association, he defined, “I do not thoughts serving to you out in case you’re sort of serving to me out, too.”

Benedet calls a dynamic like this an “abuse of energy” and rejects claims that such preparations are innocent if each events agree.
“[When] your continued capacity to dwell in that lodging is premised on you offering sexual companies, then that’s predatory — and I feel the fellows who’re posting these advertisements know that,” Benedet stated.
The Market staff adopted up with two of the advertisers behind covert listings: the person we met on a hidden digicam and the opposite who had despatched an express photograph.
When requested why he hooked up such circumstances to his housing supply, the primary lister claimed he preferred to “assist individuals out” earlier than abruptly hanging up. He later ignored a followup electronic mail.
The second advertiser apologized in an announcement, writing he had “no concept” his actions had been unlawful and believed it was innocent “so long as it was consensual between adults.” He took down the advert, promised by no means to submit one other and admitted he had been “silly.”
Imbalance of energy
Santos says intercourse for hire conditions can put susceptible younger ladies susceptible to being coerced into intercourse trafficking. She stated the worry of eviction — or, within the case of worldwide college students, deportation — retains many silent.
“That is among the greatest challenges we now have, notably for worldwide scholar ladies, due to the associated worry of being deported,” she stated. “They’re scared to dwell out on the streets, they usually don’t have any household and no assist system. They don’t have any different choices.”

An influence imbalance may be leveraged even in a case the place a tenant is paying their hire in accordance with a conventional lease; Market heard from Mya, who stated she was threatened with eviction when she refused her landlord’s sexual advances.
A scholar in 2017, Mya, whose id Market is defending as a result of she fears reprisal from her former landlord, stated she felt trapped after the person threatened to kick her out of her Toronto residence, elevate her hire and lower off utilities when she turned down his predatory requests. She stated her landlord lived on the ground beneath her, and he or she believes he was preying on her monetary weak point as a result of he knew she was a feminine scholar residing alone.
“Within the grand scheme of issues, I used to be a reasonably susceptible individual in that sense,” she stated.
Though Mya finally moved out with the assistance of her household, dropping out of college to flee the state of affairs, she stated the trauma lingers.
“To at the present time, when somebody knocks on my door, I cover,” she stated, including that she’s grateful she had the assist of her mother and father to assist her get out of the state of affairs.
Benedet says that sturdy assist is vital for ladies who find yourself in sex-for-rent preparations, “so they do not have to attend another night time to discover a protected, clear, inexpensive place to dwell, and to make it possible for their standing in Canada is sufficiently safe in order that they will proceed to review and work with out being prey to this sort of exercise.”
Santos has labored to assist younger ladies in her municipality by an international students charter, which affords sure protections for worldwide college students, and a residential rental licensing pilot program launched final yr to raised vet landlords. She additionally launched a movement to combat the human trafficking of worldwide college students in Brampton, Ont., which metropolis council handed late final yr. Now, she’s calling on platforms like Fb and Craigslist to step up.
She hopes to see a extra monitored and rigorous reporting system of these kinds of advertisements applied by the platforms.
Market reached out to each Fb and Craigslist for remark. Meta, Fb’s guardian firm, stated that such advertisements violate its insurance policies and inspired customers to report them. Craigslist didn’t reply.
After Market shared its findings with SOLO, the organization condemned sex for rent ads calling them “immoral, unethical and possibly felony.” The group urged potential tenants to stay cautious within the tight rental market, keep away from listings that appear too good to be true and be vigilant for indicators of abuse or fraud.

The group urged potential tenants to stay cautious within the tight rental market, keep away from listings that appear too good to be true and be vigilant for indicators of abuse or fraud. The assertion additionally stated that anybody dealing with coercion or threats from predatory landlords ought to report it to native authorities — and referred to as on legislation enforcement to analyze and prosecute these accountable.
Benedet believes a police crackdown is important to reveal these behind these listings.
“It is so simple as sending an undercover officer to reply to these advertisements,” she stated. “We all know that the one greatest deterrent to this sort of behaviour is enforcement — it is the specter of publicity and actual penalties.”
Learn how to shield your self
Market additionally reached out to the Canadian Affiliation of Chiefs of Police (CACP). In a statement, it referred to as the apply a “type of web luring involving potential prostitution and human-trafficking conditions.”
“Anybody who affords intercourse for hire is responsible of an offence and, as such, topic to prosecution,” the CACP assertion learn. “We … take a robust place in opposition to exploitation in any type.”
The affiliation urged victims and witnesses to come back ahead, stating that when police turn out to be conscious of sex-for-rent schemes, they’ve an obligation to totally examine, shield victims and apprehend offenders.
“These answerable for the exploitation, predation, coercion and trafficking which might be related to the intercourse commerce and the ensuing particular person and neighborhood harms should be dropped at justice.”
Advocates from the Vancouver Rape Reduction and Ladies’s Shelter and the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic advise ladies to study their rights as tenants, doc all communications and search authorized help or unbiased authorized recommendation in the event that they expertise coercion.
Additionally they suggest reaching out to ladies’s helplines or calling 911 in emergencies.
Mya hopes that empowering ladies trapped in harmful housing conditions will assist them to talk up and drive actual change.
“They don’t seem to be alone,” she stated. “If all of us communicate up collectively, possibly we will make a distinction.”
When you’re in speedy hazard or worry to your security or that of others round you, please name 911. For assist in your space, you’ll be able to search for disaster strains and native companies through the Ending Violence Association of Canada database.
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