But these days, Gibbs’ inbox as student union president is filled with “pretty desperate” inquiries about where they can live. “I’ve never seen a situation like this in my four years at King’s,” Gibbs said on Friday. He said the current plight appears to be due to rising rents, coupled with the ongoing housing shortage in Nova Scotia. When she started at King’s, Gibbs said she crunched the numbers and decided it was cheaper to live off campus, but that’s no longer the case. He said no other student he knows pays less than $700 a month, and that usually requires multiple roommates to split the cost. “It’s supposed to be a student town, but more and more it’s becoming so unaffordable that I really wonder who the town is really for anymore,” Gibbs said. Victoria Gibbs is president of King’s Students’ Union at the University of King’s College in Halifax. (CBC) With most schools returning to in-person classes this year after months of online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gibbs said students may need to put their education on hold until they find somewhere to live. King’s sent out an urgent request to alumni last week, looking for people to rent extra bedrooms or other spaces to students. The email from Katie Merwin, dean of students, said the university’s on-campus housing is full and they still have 15 freshmen on the waiting list, even after converting several single rooms to doubles. There are 10 other returning seniors who also can’t find housing. They added their names to the housing waiting list, Merwin said. Another way universities could help would be to freeze or reduce tuition fees, which have risen in Nova Scotia during the pandemic, said Chris Reppas, the president of the Canadian Federation of Students in Nova Scotia. Kris Reppas is the Nova Scotia president for the Canadian Federation of Students. (Nicole Lapierre Photography) Reppas said provincial rent control and higher minimum wage legislation will go a long way toward helping students. “Some people then have to participate in unsafe living conditions where there are more people living in one space than they should,” Reppas said. Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) has also asked its alumni to rent extra rooms or provide advice on apartments, specifically for the Yarmouth, Kentville and Truro areas. Chauncey Kennedy, director of housing and student life at NSCC, said he has seen student housing issues evolve over the past few years into what is now a crisis. “It’s not just a human resources issue. It’s a provincial issue,” Kennedy said Friday. “It’s just more expensive to live in Nova Scotia.” Both King’s and NSCC, as well as other schools, use websites such as Places4students.com for students to connect with people renting rooms. Kennedy also said they are always looking for host families to support international students through the Canada Homestay Network. Campus housing at the Strait Area Campus and Maritime Institute at NSCC in Port Hawkesbury, NS (NSCC) NSCC also has a waiting list for the three housing facilities on campus, and Kennedy said they are considering adding more students to those buildings temporarily. Kennedy said three new provincially-funded student housing projects planned for NSCC’s Akerley, Ivany and Pictou campuses are another way to address housing issues, but won’t be ready until 2024 and 2025 at the earliest. Representatives from Dalhousie University and Saint Mary’s University (SMU) said Friday that they have not emailed alumni seeking help with student housing this fall. Cale Loney, a spokesman for SMU, said while they have a waiting list for rooms on campus that is “standard” for this time of year and overall application numbers are down slightly compared to pre-pandemic years. Dalhousie spokeswoman Janet Bryson said they currently do not have a “very long waiting list” for their approximately 2,300 residential beds.
Some Nova Scotia students face ‘desperate’ situation amid housing crisis
Students at some universities and colleges have yet to find places to live for the upcoming fall semester. Watch Tom Murphy’s interview with Victoria Gibbs, student union president at King’s College University, Halifax.
