Living in Oshawa - UOIT .. plz help (apartment, condo)

[buttercup lily]

Hey Torontians!

I'm going to attend UOIT in Oshawa for a 2-year masters degree, i'll work on part-time as a TA as well.. so i'll spend most of the week-day time at UOIT campus.

I'm still unsure where to find a place to live in the GTA!

My living budget is somehow average.. I'll be making around $1900/month plus non-fixed income from private tutoring classes to students.

meanwhile, purchasing a car does not seem feasible-- well, not in the near future.


I'm looking for a safe/friendly/popular place... (condo apartment is a plus)
within some area where I can live and commute easily to Oshawa.. I'm a female and I'll be living alone, safety is my biggest concern.

I'm SO frustrated .. UOIT offer is excellent and I really don't want to miss it!



Any suggestions? Thanks in advance =)

[Wwanderer]

Can someone at UoiT give you advice about suitable housing? I don't know Oshawa all that well, but it's tough without a car I think. Don't know anything about the area around the campus.

[plmbpmp]

I'd avoid anywhere south of highway 2 and the Taunton Road area east of Simcoe.

[Perspective71]

Oshawa is generally much more affordable than the rest of the GTA. A good place to start looking would be around Ritson and Taunton. They've cleaned up the area quite a bit over the last few years. There are many students going to UOIT that live in the area as it is just a short bus ride to UOIT from there. Just one caveat, if you do decide to live there be very careful about which building you choose. Some of the buildings have been cleaned up, but others still have many members of the underclass residing there.

[memph]

Is Giant Tiger adequate for groceries? They don't exist in my area. Also seems like bus service ends around 9 or 9:30 pm on some routes. Although at least the Simcoe/Ritson & Taunton area seems to have several (7) different bus routes so you can get to most parts of town without having to worry about transfers (although some routes are pretty circuitous). It's basically a cluster of apartment buildings in a typical suburban setting, mostly surrounded by housing subdivisions and shopping centres.

Does anyone from Oshawa know what living downtown is like? That would be a more urban alternative that still has a direct bus route to UOIT.

I definitely wouldn't want to live in Oshawa without a car as a family, which means taking kids to all sorts of activities, but maybe as a single student it's manageable.

[Perspective71]

Originally Posted by memph

Is Giant Tiger adequate for groceries? They don't exist in my area. Also seems like bus service ends around 9 or 9:30 pm on some routes. Although at least the Simcoe/Ritson & Taunton area seems to have several (7) different bus routes so you can get to most parts of town without having to worry about transfers (although some routes are pretty circuitous). It's basically a cluster of apartment buildings in a typical suburban setting, mostly surrounded by housing subdivisions and shopping centres.

Does anyone from Oshawa know what living downtown is like? That would be a more urban alternative that still has a direct bus route to UOIT.

I definitely wouldn't want to live in Oshawa without a car as a family, which means taking kids to all sorts of activities, but maybe as a single student it's manageable.

There is also Metro in the five points mall that should provide enough groceries within walking distance. It would be hard to live in the city without a car, though I grew up with a few people who's families did not have a car and got by ok without one. Most of these people lived closer to the downtown core and did a lot of the shopping by taking the bus to the Oshawa Centre or went to their local convenience store.
You could live in downtown Oshawa and take the Simcoe bus to UOIT, it runs fairly frequently though it is really packed now. There is also a UOIT campus downtown, so if you happen to work at that one you could live and work downtown.