Bilal Akhtar graduated from Waterloo’s software engineering program in 2019 and landed a job with Cockroach Labs, a database company based in New York, but Bilal was brought to Toronto. Bilal saw the housing crisis unfold, and even for new graduates there was a struggle, so he decided to join More Neighbours Toronto (MNTO) which is a pro-housing and volunteer organization that advocates for housing development in the GTA. 

MNTO recognized that the housing crisis is a home-grown issue, and in order to address the shortage, 1.5million homes would have to be built. Bilal has seen the effects of the housing shortage in other places in the world and doesn’t want to see the same effects back home in Ontario. It’s essential that the housing crisis is solved for many reasons, including the risk of losing technology to other regions in addition to low quality of life. 

You can read more in the feature article here.