Thursday August 17, 2023 | VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Housing is one of the most fundamental needs for every Canadian, and when it comes to accommodation for post-secondary students there are additional challenges.
Many young people — well into their 20s and some into their 30s — attend universities, colleges and other post-secondary training. Whether their educational registration is full-time or part-time, attention to their studies is essential to their educational success.
Worrying about putting a roof over their heads has often been a student challenge, but more so in these times of inflationary cost-of-living challenges and an overall national housing shortage.
Today the federal NDP has drawn focus to that issue.
Speaking streetside in Toronto today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh proposed solutions to build more affordable homes for students, which he says will also lower rents for everyone.
Many students struggle each year to find a place to rent; it’s almost a rite of passage in August and becomes a year-round challenge in many places depending on the surrounding community’s housing availability.
Vancouver Island focus:
Island Social Trends has inquired with post-secondary institutions (PSIs) on Vancouver Island regarding their student housing strategies, and that information will be added here when available.
There are three major PSI’s in the Greater Victoria area: University of Victoria, Camosun College, and Royal Roads University. Vancouver Island University is located in Nanaimo.
Three-part strategy:
Meanwhile, the NDP is proposing some ideas that might help ease the student housing situation:
- Establish a federal matching (1/3,1/3,1/3) cost-share initiatives with provinces and territories and post-secondary institutions for the construction of new affordable student housing.
- Coordinate the allocation of study permits to post-secondary institutions that can demonstrate they have a credible and affordable student housing plan.
- Incentivize partnership opportunities between businesses, non-profits and post-secondary institutions to convert existing empty office spaces to residential use, including dormitory-style student housing.
Immigration policy:
There could be some pushback from PSI’s that politics shouldn’t be imposing things like a direct relationship between student registrations and housing availability. Until now those two things have been separate economic realities for most PSIs that obviously hope to attract as many students as possible and (while they may care) have been willing to leave the housing aspect to normal market forces.
Except that the housing market is no longer normal. Due to rapidly increased immigration (not just students but individuals and families from around the world in greater number in the last few years) and an overall housing shortage for Canadians already here, there is a stark housing shortage. That has pushed up housing and rental prices beyond the reach of many (having societal and relationship aspects that are subject for another article).
Decades of underfunding:
Over the past few decades, funding to Canada’s colleges and universities has been inconsistent at best. That includes variations in funding by the federal government (which tends to focus on research funding) and provincial governments.
Post-secondary institutions (PSIs) rely heavily on fundraising from sponsors, donors and their alumni.
Many PSIs (and even K-12 school districts) welcome more international students to increase their revenues (though the pandemic for a few years cut into that revenue stream, and some PSI’s fell behind). But the NDP claims that many reports show the PSIs are falling short in ensuring enough affordable homes.
It is hard and sometimes impossible for all students – domestic and international – to find a place to live. In today’s livestreamed media session Singh indicated awareness of the impact of federal immigration policy on this situation as well.
Everyone’s problem:
While student housing has rarely shown on the radar of social or community-level issues in years past, now it’s evident that the demand for student housing is a reflection of (and has impact on) the surrounding community and its housing market ecosystem.
“I believe the federal government must set the tone and show leadership. That’s why I’m proposing solutions where everyone has a role to play and must do better. It is not enough for post-secondary institutions to welcome more international students to make more revenue, they must do their part to ensure that all students have a safe place to call home.”
In encouraging an all-hands-on-deck approach to addressing this country’s urgent housing crisis, the NDP leader today also urged the federal government to convene a roundtable with all levels of government, relevant partners and stakeholders to develop a coordinated and bold short-, medium- and long-term housing plan to increase purpose-built affordable rentals and community housing.
Commercial real estate sector:
Part of the solution will likely be any level of enthusiasm by the commercial real estate sector to start converting empty office space into regular rental units. Part of that could include dormitory-style student housing options.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends is a daily news portal at IslandSocialTrends.ca with a focus on reporting current events through a socioeconomic lens.
Founder, editor and publisher Mary P Brooke carries forward insightful discourse on a range of social and economic impacts of today’s modern lifestyle in Canada, writing from her desk in the west shore area of South Vancouver Island.
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