On Wednesday, August 30, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Victoria NDP MP Laurel Collins announced a proposal for a multi-part plan to help address the need for affordable housing for students.
The first part of the proposal, which Singh and Collins announced at a press conference held at the University of Victoria, is a federal cost-sharing mechanism. With this, one-third of the cost of building housing for students would come from the federal government, one-third from the provincial government, and one-third from the post-secondary institution in question (Camosun is in the process of creating its first on-campus housing project, with help from the provincial government).
The second part of the proposal involves turning vacant commercial buildings into housing for students through incentivizing partnership opportunities between non-profits, businesses, and post-secondary institutions.
Lastly, the proposal includes the coordination of allocation of study permits to institutions that can prove they have a credible and affordable student housing plan.
“What we need to do is build more affordable homes, homes that people can truly afford to rent or to buy,” Singh said at the press conference. “And for students, we need to build student housing that fits the needs of students… We also need to unlock the power of the federal government—the federal government has the land, the power, and the resources, the finances, to build homes. The federal government has got to build more homes that are affordable. Here in BC, the BC government has taken some initiatives, it’s partnered with universities to build homes, but they need a federal partner that is equally committed to building homes that are affordable. That’s what we’re pushing for.”
Singh said that the government needs to help create homes for students that aren’t based on a for-profit model.
“We also need to look at other solutions that include not-for-profit, cooperative housing,” he said. “We’ve got to build massively and we’ve got to build what’s truly affordable and we’ve got to use the fact that now there’s a lot of buildings, commercial buildings, that are now vacant, they can be converted into student housing. We’ve got to work with not-for-profit agencies so these homes are actually built for students to afford, not to just make profit. So there’s a lot that we can do, we can’t do the same tired things from the past hoping it’s going to give us a different result—we need to be really focused on building affordable homes for people, but particularly for students.”
Singh addressed how the housing crisis is impacting students who don’t have the means to compete in such a competitive market.
“We know that’s a major concern across the country, and it’s particularly a concern with students,” he said. “We know that everyone is having a hard time, they can’t find something that’s affordable, can’t find something they can rent, can’t even imagine trying to buy a place, and for students, it’s all the more difficult because these students who are finishing their education… have some income coming in, but certainly not enough to compete with the rest of those who have jobs that also can’t find housing.”
Nexus asked Singh if he has a message for students at Camosun College who were struggling to pay rent or find a place to live.
“It shouldn’t be that you’re a student worried about where you’re going to live,” he said. “Students should be worried about focusing on their studies, learning their craft, getting educated. That should be your worry. You shouldn’t be worried about, ‘How am I going to make rent?’, ‘Where am I going to live?’, ‘If I lose this place am I going to end up homeless?’. That should not be the worries for students, but, sadly, that is what students are worried about, and I want to change that, I want to give students some hope, though. We can fix this.”
Singh referred to other countries in Europe where student residences are affordable because the amount of rent is capped based on student income levels. He says that steps to build affordable housing need to be taken quickly to help support Canada’s students.
“There are ways to build homes that are affordable,” he said. “There are ways to build student housing that’s affordable; we need to start doing that here in Canada. We need to do that immediately.”