faced with the lack of housing, these engineering school students go camping

The campsite here is four stars. But not the shadow of a vacationer at the end of September: only engineering students. If the beach of Bidart is barely ten minutes away, the most important thing for these campers is above all the proximity to the École Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles (Estia), the prestigious engineering school of the Basque Country, also in ten minutes. 150 accommodations are planned for students, outside the peak of the tourist season, from the beginning of September to the end of June.

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Maxime is in his second year at Estia. A second year which begins for him at the campsite, in a mobile home of 27 square meters, furnished, two bedrooms. “With a small terrace to spread out your belongings and place the surfboard”, Maxime specifies. All for 455 euros per month. Electricity is his responsibility. “Last year, it was difficult to find on your own.” In the usual rental stock, “we were closer to 600 euros per month”. The more than 6,000 students in the Basque Country are not spared from the housing crisis and 950 of them are following their course at Estia, the major engineering school based in Bidart, not far from Biarritz. The school has chosen to turn to this nearby campsite for four years.

The right to housing assistance

Spending the winter in a mobile home and facing lower temperatures than at the start of autumn does not worry Maxime. “We have reversible air conditioning. Price-wise, it doesn’t cost that much to heat to 24 degrees. 25, 30 euros maximum per month.”

“This is a commercial contract on the same basis as that which we make to holidaymakers in the summer, explains David, one of the campsite managers. This still opens the right to housing assistance. We offer a minimum of one month, which means that young people who come for an internship or work-study students who have periods in a company and sometimes have to pay for accommodation elsewhere, are not forced to pay for accommodation all year round. .”

Patxi Elissalde is the general director of the engineering school. “In the territory, there are 550 university rooms or studios, this is not enough, he laments. We have a collaboration agreement with the campsite which we will renew, which we will develop, I hope…” Maxime sees only one drawback to all this: “When we go on a camping vacation again… Suddenly, we feel like we’re coming back home!”