Over the coming weeks, Student Association president Fraser McArthur said his group will help affected students submit individual complaints and will also be looking into whether the new bylaw violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"This bylaw targets students by trying to dictate where they can live," Mr. McArthur said. "Our biggest problem has always been the hard cap on rooms... . This is going to leave students scrambling for places to live next year and those lucky enough to find a place will have to pay way more."

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is already aware of the issue.

In a Feb. 8 letter, Chief Commissioner Barbara Hall said the bylaw being considered in Oshawa "raises human rights concerns."

"Laws that keep young people out of certain neighbourhoods would be just as discriminatory as laws that keep out families or racialized people," the letter reads.

UOIT president Ron Bordessa said the university won't be pursuing legal action or human rights complaints, but he said university officials will likely sit down with the City to figure out how to bring more appropriate housing to the campus area.

Despite the best efforts of students and landlords to block the new rules, council voted almost unanimously in favour of the bylaw at a special meeting Monday that drew about 200 people to General Sikorski Hall.

Landlords renting homes in the area buffering campus will now have to obtain an annual $250 licence. To be granted a licence, rental homes will have to meet all codes and landlords will be required to submit detailed parking and property maintenance plans.

There will be no limit on the number of licences issued.

Other highlights include a four-bedroom cap -- with a few exceptions -- and a requirement that basement bedrooms take up no more than 40 per cent of the total floor space.

And the bylaw will not be grandfathered. That means landlords who have made costly renovations to add extra bedrooms won't be able to use any above and beyond the cap -- whether they were built legally at the time or not.

"I spent about $30,000 on renovations in the summer of 2006 and you are now denying me the ability to earn that money back," said Phil Pfeiffer, who lives in the affected area and also rents out a seven-bedroom house. "These were built legally and now you've changed the rules on me."

Also angry was landlord Jeff Gauthier, who said he played by the rules and now has two bedrooms he won't be able to use.

"If you substituted 'south Asian' or 'black' for 'student,' would we still be here debating this?" he asked. "You can wrap intolerance and discrimination in a package of health and safety as this bylaw attempts to do, but when you take away the packaging, it remains biased and discriminatory."

The only smiles Monday night came from homeowners, who showed up en masse wearing red shirts.

They are the ones who called for regulations in the first place, after complaining to council about landlords buying up single-family homes and renting them out to students.

Vocal homeowners have cited drug use, loud parties, poor property maintenance and parking problems among the issues caused by the influx of students into their neighbourhoods.

"We're mostly happy with the bylaw," said David Bray, on behalf of the Windfields Farm Community Association. "We think the four-bedroom cap is necessary... but we're fine with allowing six on those specific streets that are already mostly student housing."

He was also pleased to see council vote down a proposal to allow grandfathering, saying the new bylaw should apply across the board. For their part, councillors spoke in support of the bylaw, with the exception of Councillor Robert Lutczyk, who voted against it, and Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri, who didn't participate in the debate or vote after declaring a pecuniary interest because his brother owns a house in the affected area.

"I'm very happy we're finally going to see some structure and some stability in that area," said Ward 7 Councillor John Neal, who represents the campus area. "Where is it written that we have to have a student ghetto like other university towns? I want to maintain this as a nice area for students and the homeowners, for everyone."

Council will adopt the bylaw at its next meeting Feb. 19 but that's expected to be a formality with no further debate.