I've always preferred having roommates, but after a bad experience in my first place in the city, I can totally sympathize with people who are afraid to go the Kijiji route.
I was desperate to get into the city because the suburban commute was draining me and I had no life, and couldn't find someone to live with, so I took to Kijiji. The girl seemed TOTALLY normal and sweet when I met her. After only a few weeks I found her to be a total pathological liar (she lied about her income on her apartment application — which I only knew afterward. She was a Starbucks manager and claimed to make more than $60,000 per year because of how long she'd been with the company, my partner's sister used to have that job and he said they max out in the 40k range), completely irresponsible (good example: she impulsively got a cat from the Humane Society, having never had one before, and after a month literally stopped buying his food because he was no longer interesting to her). Oh, and then her impulsive, irresponsible nature got us an eviction notice a year ago (she took a 75-day trip to Europe, didn't tell our landlord she was leaving, and didn't bother writing her rent cheques for those month because she "ran out of cheques"). I could have fought the notice but chose to leave and move back in with my parents for awhile until I found a better place. Oh, and I took the cat. We're still best buds.
Now, while that's kind of extreme, I know a lot of people who have ended up in those kinds of situations where people turn out to be totally sketchy — I've had friends who have had money stolen and everything. You meet them beforehand and whatnot, but of course people are always in "I've got to impress you!" mode, so you don't get an indication of how sketchy they are.
Finding roommates takes a shit ton of work and you're never quite worried you're going to get it right. What I'd advise people is to not feel pressured by the squeeze of time — there are rooms in TO you can rent on a week-to-week basis while you're trying to find a more permanent home.
Sigh. At least in the worst of situations, you might still get a sweet cat out of it.