Housing crunch turning students away from city

BY JANET GIBSON

Some students who’ve been accepted by colleges in Sudbury are considering turning down the offers because they fear they won’t be able to find a place to live, officials say. Sudbury’s vacancy rate was pegged at 0.7 per cent in the spring by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

But Laurentian University’s co-ordinator of off-campus housing said students will fare well if they lower their expectations.

Cambrian College vice-president Betty Freelandt said turnout at a pre-orientation event last week was down a little because some students who had planned on going to Cambrian had changed their plans “because they couldn’t find a place to live.”

Collège Boréal has the same problem. Student records manager Rachelle Perrault said she’s spoken to 30 out-of-town students who said they “might have to cancel” because they can’t find housing.

And Barb Thibodeau, campus director at CTS Canadian Career College, said some students won’t be able to start their programs because they “can’t find a place to live.”

Property manager Rob Zulich, whose company manages 1,000 rental units, said the vacancy rate that was nine per cent in 2000 is less than one per cent now.

The colleges have responded by helping students find accommodation and appealing to the community.

Cambrian College president Sylvia Barnard issued a press release in June asking residents to open their doors to students and to call the housing office if they had a room. Earlier this week, the college hosted an information session for people who are contemplating renting to students.

Barnard’s press release had a ripple effect all the way over at Laurentian University, where philosophy student Ken Paquette co-ordinates the off-campus housing office.

“My job was busier for two weeks,” said Paquette, who regularly takes calls from landlords looking for students and students looking for rooms.

He added media coverage of the housing crunch results in a flood of calls from landlords offering rental units. He said this costs his office money because staff have to inspect every rental unit they post on their website.

“The housing crisis for students is more applicable to Cambrian than Laurentian,” he said. “There’s tons of rooms for rent.”

Laurentian guarantees accommodation for first-year students right out of high school, said manager of on-campus housing Paulette Lafortune. The university opened a new residence in September 2006 and is already talking about building another one.

Collège Boréal has also decided to build another residence and Cambrian will open a new residence in fall 2009.

In the meantime, Boréal has asked students living in residence if they’d consider putting bunkbeds in their rooms. The college has also appealed to students, staff and alumni to rent spare rooms they may have. And it has assigned an employee the task of assisting students in their quest.

“We absolutely wouldn’t want to lose (students),” Perrault said.

Boréal’s manager of auxiliary services Denis Brouillette and Thibodeau want the city to build more affordable housing units.

But Zulich said developers are tentative to build. Construction prices are too high, he said, and rents in Sudbury are still lower than in major centres in the south.

Students looking for accommodation “can’t be picky,” he said, and should be prepared to take “whatever’s out there.”

Perrault said some students don’t try hard enough to find places to live. “We encourage them to look further,” she said.

Paquette agreed. “People have to change their expectations,” he said. Laurentian University has a bulletin board full of rooms for rent but a dearth of listings for self-contained units.

Those come open at the end of the month, Zulich said. That’s when his phone rings and rings.

Worsening the crunch is the perception that students don’t make good tenants. “If I have a choice between a student and an engineer,” said Zulich, his voice trailing off.

Kent Court, a Zulich property within walking distance of Collège Boréal, used to rent 60 per cent of its units to students. Now, the percentage is more like 30.

“Students are more difficult to manage,” Zulich said. “They’re young. They’re more likely to cause complaints from other tenants.”

But Paquette, who is up to his eyeballs in listings from landlords looking for students, said landlords like students because they stick around for three or four years. “Usually students are pretty busy people,” he said.

Paquette slammed landlords who have hiked rents into the stratosphere, leaving behind a string of students who are plummeting into debt.

The colleges hope their efforts and some extra elbow grease on the part of students and their parents will ease the problem.

“No matter how many decide not to come because of accommodations, it has an impact,” Perrault said.