Weeks away from the beginning of the semester, many post-secondary college students are struggling to seek out reasonably priced locations to reside amid excessive prices of residing and low emptiness charges in Vancouver Island’s rental market.
Within the final month, Eva Dillon and Abigail Stephen, third-year college students on the College of Victoria, stated they’ve responded to greater than 50 on-line housing adverts and visited practically 20 potential locations.
“We knew going into it that it was going to be actually onerous as a result of all people’s in search of leases beginning in September,” Dillon stated. “It’s a ton of competitors … and there’s a lot demand.”
Throughout their housing search, the 2 women, together with one different pal, have skilled all the things from scams, aggressive affords, impersonal group showings and homes that weren’t as marketed.
However this summer time shouldn’t be the start of their housing struggles — as an alternative, they check with it as “simply one other episode.” Over the past two years, they’ve lived in 5 totally different properties.
In January, the basement of their promising five-bedroom home in Gordon Head flooded and Stephen received sick after black mould began rising in her bed room. With the owner unwilling to repair it, they’ve had no alternative however to bounce round between short-term sublets and Airbnbs whereas making an attempt to safe long-term housing.
“We discovered one thing that had the promise of being so good, after which to have it ripped away and to really feel like we’re caught firstly once more is difficult,” Dillon stated.
Camosun Faculty scholar Sam Tyson stated he’s watched rental costs “improve steadily” since shifting to Victoria in 2019. Whereas he used to see one-bedroom residences simply outdoors the town for $1,000 monthly, now it’s tough to discover a room in a shared home for much less.
He at present pays $1,000 monthly plus utilities for a room in a five-bedroom home in Gordon Head. He’s working two jobs to assist himself amid skyrocketing prices of residing.
“A strong half of the paycheque is simply going to paying lease after which I nonetheless have all of the accompanying payments, then I’m spending $100 to purchase one small bag of groceries,” he stated. “Then you definitely solely have a pair hundred {dollars} a month simply to have a life with. It’s onerous,” he stated.
After encountering many landlords who improve lease costs solely for private revenue, Tyson added the toughest a part of navigating the housing market as a brand new scholar is “realizing who to belief.”
“It simply actually takes the wind out of individuals’s sails,” he stated. “That is their first impression of actual grownup life, to pay $1,000 to have some roommates in a home.”
Dillon and Stephen stated they’ve additionally developed “main belief points” after landlords pit them towards different potential tenants to safe the most effective worth. They’ve attended showings the place the owner informs them of one other supply at $100 extra per bed room than the listed worth and asks them to match it.
A landlord as soon as informed them they have been as an alternative going to lease to a household who had supplied the primary three months’ lease and $1,000 extra monthly. Stephen stated it instantly took any college students who had utilized out of the working.
“We will’t supply that when faculty begins in three weeks,” Stephen stated. “The truth that you must spend cash on books and pay your tuition and pay the injury deposit and the primary month’s lease, all of that provides as much as a giant large quantity simply going out of your financial institution.”
Discovering an accessible location is one other main hurdle for the various college students who depend on public transit to get to class on time. Many student-oriented listings are in inaccessible areas of the town the place the closest bus cease is a 15-minute stroll away and the place buses solely come each 40 minutes.
Dillon and Stephen have additionally began to think about a actuality the place they don’t reside with their mates and simply lease out single rooms in numerous spots.
However with Dillon’s household in Ottawa and Stephen’s in Kuwait, having mates as an accessible assist system is important to their well-being.
“Dwelling with my mates and having folks that I can depend on if I’ve a tough day and chat with on the kitchen desk is so necessary,” Dillon stated.
“It’s both you reside with your mates, otherwise you reside alone and simply undergo it,” Stephen added. “And that’s what it’s come to with housing and it’s so onerous to even put your self on the checklist for single-bedroom listings and take into consideration that risk.”
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