Student housing hits new crisis levels

Just one in 10 secure dorm rooms as surging demand expected to spike rental prices, report says

- JANET HURLEY

Neuroscience major Arden Miller moves into residence at University of Toronto's Trinity College with help from parents Dina LaPoint and Sean Miller. A Desjardins report reveals that Canada's student housing supply still lags significantly behind other countries.

With the start of the fall term, students who managed to land a coveted spot in university and college dorms, either due to a first-year guarantee, high marks or just the luck of a lottery, are settling in for the academic year. They are a fortunate few.

Residence beds are available to only about one in 10 students in Canada, according to a new report, which found the country’s supply of student housing lags far behind other nations.

This despite a recent spate of expansion: Humber College just opened a 336-bed residence in Etobicoke; Huron College welcomed students to a new 300-bed facility in London, Ont., over the weekend, and this summer, the University of British Columbia completed a housing project that has added 1,002 spaces to its Vancouver campus.

Despite McMaster University, the University of Toronto and private developers working on projects to house thousands more, the number of purpose-built student accommodation in the pipeline is expected to result in only a small improvement. According to the report, new builds would have to house more than 60 per cent of students living away from home to fully meet demand.