[URBAN NOTE] "High Toronto rents 'life or death' for transplant patients"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC News' Laura Howells describes how critical rental availability, in the right area, can be for prospective transplant patients. I had no idea this was the case.

When Tina Proulx needed a double lung transplant, moving to Toronto was a matter of life or death.

But with no income and a red hot rental market, just getting on the transplant list was a mountainous struggle costing her and her husband more than $40,000.

"It was very high stress," she said.

"Finding a place to live was extremely difficult," she said.

In order to get on the transplant list, patients need to live within a two-hour radius of Toronto General Hospital — although they're encouraged to live as close to the hospital as they can.

"As soon as they put you on that list it could be an hour before they get a set of lungs," said Proulx.

"Or it could be three months, four months, it could be a year. They don't know."