"We're achieving some progress in trying to deal with some of these issues in our community," Ward 39 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Councillor Mike Del Grande said in an interview, noting the operator of an allegedly illegal rooming house was recently fined $72,000.

"We've had a challenge in our neighbourhood with homes that start getting subdivided. They become rooming houses. They basically disrupt the community ambience," he said.

Del Grande reported that investigating rooming houses can be difficult because the city doesn't have the right of access to determine whether a home has been turned into a rooming house.

But despite that fact, he said the city's municipal licensing and standards (MLS) division has had two "key" outcomes recently.

"We had one home that was used more or less as a hotel than a rooming house. It was advertised on the 'net. They were fined $5,000 each," Del Grande said of the couple who owned the home.

And last Friday, a woman with six homes, including two on Shepton Way, was fined $72,000, he said.

"She collected $72,000 a year from these homes so the Justice of the Peace fined her $72,000," Del Grande said, adding the individual was "raking in a lot of money pumping as many people into cramped quarters as possible."

Rooming houses are only legal in the former City of Toronto.

In the former City of Etobicoke, there are licensed lodging houses which are licensed by Toronto Public Health.

But rooming houses are illegal in the former cities of North York and Scarborough.

According to MLS, there were 395 licensed/applied for rooming houses in Toronto as of Nov. 1.

"People are complaining in my neighbourhood about this kind of activity, about the traffic," Del Grande said, adding that rooming houses are a problem in communities throughout Scarborough.

"These people are players. They're making big, big money. This is not your ma and pa having some extra money and buying a house," he said.

Del Grande said rooming houses are often easy to spot simply because of the number of people coming in and out, the number of cars parked outside and the amount of garbage at the curb.

"There are very easy signs," he said.

Del Grande said he believes the city needs greater powers to investigate rooming houses in Toronto.

"I believe we need to have reverse onus. If all the signs are there, we take the position it's a rooming house and they have to prove otherwise," he said. "I think that would go a long, long way (to addressing the problem)."

In the meantime he hopes news of the recent fines will serve as a warning to property owners who are allegedly operating illegal rooming houses.

"It's eye-opening," he said of the fine issued last week. "It's pretty steep."