Student housing crisis | Homeless for the start of the school year

Student residences are overflowing. Housing for rent flies away as soon as it is posted on the market. Convents, hotels, residences for seniors: no solution has been ruled out to find a roof for students a few weeks before the start of the school year.

Lea Carrier
The Press

“Housing is going faster than ever”

“Calls, I couldn’t take any more. It was crying on the phone. People begged me to take them,” says Sylvie Carrier.

This summer, the social worker had the idea of ​​renting rooms to students at her home in Trois-Rivières.

For days, the phone didn’t stop ringing. At the end of the line, students desperate to find an affordable roof – or a roof at all.

Across Quebec, the lack of student housing is at a critical point.

So much so that many players in the community are calling for a national strategy to tackle the crisis.

“We hear every year, but more and more, stories of students who are forced to live in hotels or on a couch for months,” notes Laurent Levesque, Executive Director and co-founder of the Work Unit for the establishment of student housing (UTILE).

In Trois-Rivières, where the vacancy rate is less than 1%, this is the scenario that we are trying by all means to avoid.

“Currently, it’s very difficult,” confirms Catherine Therrien, assistant director of student services at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières.

To accommodate everyone, universities and CEGEPs must be creative. And put in place backup solutions (see the second article below).

With nearly 25% of its population made up of students, Sherbrooke is also hit by the crisis.

“This year, housing is going faster than ever,” says Marc-Antoine Bolduc, vice-president of external affairs for the Student Federation of the University of Sherbrooke.

Just over 100 international students were still looking for accommodation at the end of July, according to a survey conducted by the University.

“This situation is one of the most stressful I’ve had to live,” says Izzy Pepper.

Since June, the English student has been answering all housing ads in Sherbrooke, without success. Now, the countdown to back-to-school has begun. And Izzy must think of a plan B.

“I will rent an Airbnb if I can’t find anything,” says the one who is studying French as a second language.

The same scenario is also playing out in Gaspé, Chicoutimi, Rouyn-Noranda and Rimouski.

“It’s very, very difficult to find something affordable or to find something, period,” notes Maya Labrosse, president of the Quebec College Student Federation.

No place in residence

The lack of housing is not the only obstacle: soaring rental prices too – especially in Montreal.

“Students have no choice but to move away or go well beyond the budget they would have liked to spend on their accommodation,” remarks Laurent Levesque.

And the student residences, which have the advantage of being very affordable, are packed.

At the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR), nearly 100 students are waiting for a place in residence.

Year after year, the residences of the Université du Québec network succeeded in welcoming all the students registered on their waiting lists before the start of the school year.

“This year, we are facing a different situation. The trend is for waiting lists to stagnate,” confirms Jean-Sébastien Gohier, director of material and real estate resources and of the real estate projects office at the Université du Québec.

At Cégep de Trois-Rivières, all students have been housed so far. But there too, the places in residence are coveted.

“Students are staying longer in residence because costs have gone up and there are fewer options. It frees up fewer places for new students,” notes Janie Trudel-Bellefeuille, coordinator of the Cégep’s international office.

“A matter of fairness”

“We made the mistake in Quebec, in recent decades, of forgetting student housing,” laments Laurent Levesque.

And those who suffer are the students, who often have no choice but to leave the family home to study, recalls L’UTILE.

Hence the urgency of tackling the problem head-on. And right now.

“There is an issue of equity of access to post-secondary education,” argues Mr. Levesque.

CEGEPs and universities play with creativity

The back-to-school countdown has begun. To find housing, universities and CEGEPs must be creative.

Residences for seniors, monasteries, boarding schools: the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières does not exclude any idea to find a roof for its students.

“We have to be original in our approach,” argues Jean-François Hinse, head of media relations at the university.

No agreement has been reached yet, but negotiations are underway, he said.

“We are looking for volume. But the facilities must meet the needs of the students. We make it a point to visit on site,” underlines Mr. Hinse.

At the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles, a three-year agreement was signed in June to house students in a hotel in Carleton-sur-Mer.

No one will end up on the street, assures Marie-Claude Deschênes, spokesperson for the Regroupement des cégeps de regions.

For several weeks, universities have been increasing calls to the population to accommodate students or keep up-to-date lists of available accommodation.

Viable solutions

Hotels and convents can help out, but we also need viable solutions, plead actors in the field. And a national strategy to tackle the crisis.

The urgency is all the greater as a wave of tens of thousands of additional students is expected on the benches of CEGEPs by 2029.

To unclog CEGEPs in major centers, which will be the most affected, Quebec wants to attract 5,000 students to the regions within 5 years through its Parcours student mobility program.

“We experience strangulation even without the implementation of this program, which is excellent news,” says Jean-François Ouellet, director of student community services at the Université du Québec à Rimouski.

To meet future demand, the establishment hopes to obtain the green light from Quebec for the financing of a building project that could house 100 students.

Bernard Tremblay, president of the Fédération des cégeps, agrees.

At the Ministry of Higher Education, $58.9 million has been earmarked for the construction, refurbishment and renovation of student residences for regional CEGEPs, said spokesperson Esther Chouinard by email.

The CEGEPs of Gaspésie and the Islands, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, La Pocatière and the Collège d’Alma are particularly concerned by construction projects or the acquisition of student residences, she adds.

“Red Flag”

The UTILE organization relies instead on the construction of housing specifically intended for students. Its most recent project, La Rose des vents, located in the Angus eco-district, welcomed its first residents this summer.

On the eve of the provincial elections, the organization is asking the parties to commit to building at least 15,000 student rooms within 10 years, which represents “5% of the demand”, illustrates Élise Tanguay, director of affairs public of USEFUL.

“It would be a first step to show that there is a red flag that has been raised. We have to tackle this problem head on, because we’re going straight into the wall. In fact, we are in the wall, ”she concludes.