Housing Crunch

With enough dorm rooms for just one in 10 students, universities are coming up with creative solutions

- Erin Pepler

CLANCY O'KEEFE WAS thrilled when he found out he'd been accepted to the biochemistry program at the University of Guelph—his top pick—in early 2024.

His brother had graduated from the school a year earlier, and it had a solid reputation among his friends and family. O'Keefe, who was 17 at the time and living in Burlington, Ontario, quickly accepted the offer and waited for more details—including his residence placement. His mom had been told a spot was guaranteed.

A few weeks later, O’Keefe learned he was number 460 on a waiting list of over 1,300 students, none of whom had made the cut for one of Guelph’s approximately 5,000 residence spots. He was devastated. He considered his options: commute five days a week from Burlington, about a 45-minute drive, or find a place to live off-campus in Guelph. Neither option would result in the holistic, immersive university experience he’d been looking forward to. Reluctantly, O’Keefe withdrew from Guelph and accepted a spot in the biochemistry program at Western University in London, Ontario, where he was offered a dorm room.

O’Keefe’s predicament is increasingly common. Across the country, there are only enough on-campus housing spaces for one in every 10 university students. Guelph is one of many schools struggling to meet the high demand for dorms, partly fuelled by the high cost of housing in nearby communities. Living on campus, which once felt like a given, is now a privilege, and students are paying the price. Now, universities and other organizations are racing to come up with solutions.