Because of the housing crisis, CEGEP residences have to refuse a record number of students this year. A critical situation that compromises the study plans of hundreds of young Quebecers, while pushing foreign students to stay at home.
Émile Morin, who is due to begin a technique in adventure tourism this fall at Cégep de Gaspé, is discouraged. A few weeks ago, the 17-year-old learned that he was not accepted in the student residence, for lack of space.
“I have no choice, I’m staying in Sherbrooke. I can’t drive 11 hours morning and evening, ”he drops. After receiving the rejection letter, he actively searched for accommodation on several sites, without success. Added to this is the fact that he can hardly afford to buy a car. His options are therefore limited.
He tells himself more and more that he will have to change his plans and postpone for a year his entrance to CEGEP, which is one of the few in Quebec to offer a program of this type. “I got used to the idea that I wouldn’t find it,” he said. And if that’s the case, I’m going to have to come back next year and be sure to have a place in residence. »
He is on the waiting list at the Cégep residence, which has 75 names this year. Never seen.
“It is certain that there are students who will not come”, concedes the director of the Cégep de Gaspé, Yolaine Arseneau. Recently, the college launched an appeal to the population to find rooms, but the director does not expect to find places for everyone. “We are not throwing in the towel, we are continuing to look for solutions. »
The housing vacancy rate in Gaspé is less than 1%. The college plans to expand the residences and add 50 places to its offer, but the project will not be completed for two years.
A “perfect storm”
Throughout Quebec, The duty identified nearly 1,500 names on waiting lists for the fall start. The phenomenon mainly affects the regions, while residences are rarer in the CEGEPs of Montreal and Quebec.
At Cégep de Trois-Rivières, there is no shortage of 569 places.
In the regions, the cost of a room in a residence, with a shared kitchen and bathroom, fluctuates around $330 per month. In Montreal and Quebec, it often costs $100 more.
The housing crisis is causing students to stay in residence longer, notes the director of the Cégep de Victoriaville, Denis Deschamps.
In Victoriaville, 139 names are on the waiting list. To reduce the pressure, the Cégep launched a platform in April inviting the population to offer rooms. But Mr. Deschamps does not see how he will be able to accommodate everyone by the start of the school year in August.
Closer to Montreal, the Cégep de Saint-Jérôme is also struggling with “a historic waiting list” of 113 people. “So far, we haven’t lost any students, but do we have fears for the future? Yes”, notes the director, Nadine Le Gal.
The situation is ominous, confirms Laurent Levesque, general manager of the Work Unit for the Implementation of Student Housing (UTILE), which builds non-profit housing for students. “In previous years, calls for help like that or warning signals from CEGEPs and universities, it was in August. There, it cracks from May. »
All the factors are currently in place to create a “perfect storm”, he illustrates. “In many student towns, the rental market around campuses was already saturated,” he says. What has also happened in recent years is that we have made historic investments in student mobility and in the development of nested programs, with grants for access to CEGEP studies. »
Quebec needs a student housing project, he pleads. The Quebec Collegiate Student Federation is calling for the same thing. “We fear that the inaffordability and lack of access to housing will become a barrier to accessibility to studies, especially in more remote regions,” says its president, Laurence Mallette-Léonard. “There are Parcours scholarships in the amount of $7,500 which are given to students who choose to go to the regions, but even if they have money, there is no accommodation for them. when they arrive,” she adds.
Brake on international recruitment
Those who are doing better, like the Cégep de Sept-Îles, say they have reached the limit of their abilities. And wonder to what extent they will be able to recruit abroad.
“With the lack of housing in the city and the increase in recruiting activities outside [international et bourses Parcours]we will start to be limited for the years to come, ”said the spokesperson for the Cégep de Sept-Îles.
The president of the student association, himself a foreign student living in the CEGEP residence, confirms this. “You have to do a credit check when international students want to rent an apartment, but they don’t have a credit history in Quebec. So they have to go through the CEGEP and the student residence, ”underlines Amine Labidi, who estimates that the places are occupied at 80% by foreign students. “And the problem now is that there is no more room. »
Same thing in Matane, where most of the students without housing (they are 19 in total) come from abroad. “We are worried about the next few years, both for the development of the CEGEP and the region,” said a spokesperson.
In Saint-Jérôme, the director fears that the lack of accommodation will hinder international recruitment in programs that are less popular with Quebecers. This is the case of technique in the management of a restaurant establishment, which plays a key role in countering the labor shortage.
“It completely changes our strategy,” says Nadine Le Gal.
As for the director of the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles, she gives herself until the end of June to advise foreign students who are less advanced in their efforts to postpone their arrival. “We are not going to tell French students to take the plane if we cannot accommodate them. »