In almost all regions of Quebec, the student population is being hit hard by the housing crisis1. Many students have to resign themselves to paying rent far beyond their means, while others simply give up on their study plans, unable to find accommodation near their educational institution.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
This situation was unfortunately predictable: even if the student population is constantly increasing, there has been practically no student housing built in Quebec for decades. Consequently, a large proportion of the student population – 7 out of 10 university graduates – must turn to the private rental market for housing. When the cost of rent available for rent explodes, students, who often have to leave family accommodation to continue their studies, are therefore among the first victims of these increases.
At the Work Unit for the Implementation of Student Housing (UTILE), a non-profit organization (NPO) specializing in the issue of student housing, we estimate that 15,000 rooms of affordable student housing should be built over the course of over the next 10 years to meet the needs.
Educational institutions are currently working on residence projects on their campuses, but these student residences can only meet a fraction of this demand.
Private developers, for their part, have little appetite for the construction of new affordable student housing.
The social economy, part of the solution
Fortunately, there is a third way which combines the flexibility of the private sector with the social orientation of the public sector, and which is able to offer a lasting solution to the shortage of student accommodation: the social economy. Social economy enterprises operate like private enterprises, with one major difference: rather than seeking to maximize their profits, they instead seek to maximize the positive social spinoffs of their activities.
Building affordable student housing in the social economy has many advantages. First, since the housing units built are operated by an NPO, they find themselves sheltered from real estate speculation and abusive rent increases. In addition, thanks to their flexible business model, social economy enterprises can attract private capital to finance their projects, thus reducing the share of public financing necessary to carry out an affordable housing project.
This model has already been used to build student buildings, such as the Gîte universitaire in Trois-Rivières or the Cité étudiante Desjardins in Val-d’Or. L’UTILE is working to deploy this approach on a larger scale by relying on the financial participation of many private partners, such as labor funds, student associations and social economy financial institutions. In the past four years, UTILE has already delivered or started work on more than 400 affordable student housing units. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, for its part, recently took up the issue, in particular by investing 4.6 million in Ardoise, a 204-unit project that UTILE is building in Quebec in cost of 35.5 million.
Double winner
Investing in affordable student housing benefits everyone. Obviously, this allows the student population to find affordable accommodation in apartments that meet their needs. Knowing that housing costs, and not tuition fees, represent the main source of student debt, such a measure greatly promotes accessibility to higher education.
The non-student population also benefits from the construction of affordable student accommodation: each time a student chooses to live in shared student accommodation, an apartment becomes available on the private market.
This has the effect of reducing pressure on rents in student neighborhoods, in addition to freeing up large housing units for families.
L’UTILE is working on new projects totaling 1,500 housing units for the student population in many Quebec cities, including Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke. The rapid achievement of these would be an important first step towards resolving the current crisis. The lack of predictable funding dedicated to the construction of affordable student housing, however, complicates their realization.
As the approaching back-to-school season has exposed the urgency of action in terms of student housing and the election campaign will begin shortly, L’UTILE is asking political parties to make a minimum commitment to financially support the construction of these 1500 student accommodation. This first step towards a way out of the crisis would benefit from being followed by a national strategy on student housing.
In recent years, educational institutions and governments have made great efforts to attract international students and promote interregional student mobility. Now is the time to devote as much energy to ensuring that all these beautiful people can find suitable accommodation.