As the shorter summer evenings signal the start of a new academic year, a chilling wind of anxiety will take hold for many university students. But it’s not necessarily school-related stress or nerves about leaving home that is causing them to worry. It’s something more fundamental: for an increasing number of students the question troubling them is “Where am I going to live?” Student housing – a residence room, a shared house, a small flat – was once a given. It is no longer, with the issue now an emblem of how our society is failing younger generations.
A global look at student housing conditions makes for bleak reading, as large financial investors increasingly buy up purpose-built student housing for their next big win. In the UK, average student housing prices now outstrip the maximum government-offered student loans. In Canadian cities like Toronto and Calgary, where student residences are full and rents are soaring, some have little choice but to sleep in their cars or in homeless shelters. Last year, dozens of Erasmus exchange students in Italy, unable to secure housing, were forced to sleep on the streets.
