No job, no credit, no references, and a backed up landlord-tenant board, meaning that the landlord can't evict for at least a year if they don't pay the rent... no surprise that they had to put cash up front.
The bigger issue, though, is why stay in downtown Toronto? It's the second most expensive real estate market in Canada and an extremely competitive job market. There are a hundreds other less expensive places of live that would greatly value an influx of people with skills. Where I live (not Toronto), half of our IT department are newcomers from India and Africa who were smart enough to realize that there is more to Canada than Toronto.