The winter semester has begun and with that hails fresh new campus bookstore bills, fresh new snow and fresh new panic. The bitter cold of January comes hand-in-hand with troops of students canvassing the ghetto and beyond, seeking shelter for the year.
The campus reeks of anxiety, tension and competition; everyone is seeking to find the ‘holy grail’ of housing, or at least the sweetest deal Kingston has to offer, before someone else snatches up the lease. Queen’s Journal takes to the street to find out the real housing deal.
Martha Ramsay (ArtSci ’10), Brooke Jan (ArtSci ’10), Sara Cooper (Sci’ 10) and Brooke Harvey (Comm ’10) traversed the area between Aberdeen and Division late at night on a house-hunting mission. “Everyone’s already signed a lease,” Ramsay said. “We’re feeling the pressure,” Jan chimed in. Students have signed leases as early as December, trying to beat the rush but have inevitably fueled a campus-wide fear of reg to mere “left-over” houses.
Jane Kwan (ArtSci ’10) had a much more relaxed stance on housing. Having attended the housing information sessions held in residence, and talked to upper-years who have already experienced the jolts of housing panic, she felt much more calm about the situation. She browsed the accommodation listings online but reiterated she was not looking to settle in the student Ghetto. “It’s a little sketchy. You don’t hear good things about it and I kind of want to avoid it,” she said.
Kwan’s friend, Crystal Wong (ArtSci ’10) shared the same sentiments, having heard horror stories about rat infestations, unstable foundations and flimsy building materials in the student Ghetto. After thoroughly enjoying her first year in residence, she hopes to continue to do so next year. “I like how close everything is,” she said, “It’s completely worry-free”.
In fact, the housing situation is much less dire than many students realize. Many students strive to sign leases during the first few weeks of January, and thus are restricted to the few properties listed during this month. Joan Jones of Town-Gown Relations stressed that tenants have a 60-day provision on leases such that they are under no obligation to renew or reject their lease until March 1st. As a result, properties will continually and gradually appear on the market, with a second wave of listings appearing at the beginning of March.
“There is actually a surplus in housing,” Jones said. “In the beginning of September, there were about 400 vacant properties left in close proximity to campus.”
Following the double co-hort in 2003, there was general concern that there would be a shortage of housing, resulting in parents purchasing houses for their children and landlords expanding the number of properties, thus creating a plentiful supply of houses.
“Landlords generate a sense of panic,” said Jones. “They don’t want to be left with vacant properties. This sense of fear is perpetuated by upper-year students. Students who have gone through the January housing panic, coming out with an attractive house reaffirm the need for haste. Those who have been disappointed with their houses base their problems on not having tried hard enough early on.
“Students should look at a lot of stuff to know what is a good deal. Perhaps they might miss out on something, but it’s worth it to develop skills in this area,” Jones said.
Elain Bevens Caird, associate director of the Queen’s Apartment and Housing Service concurs with Jones. She encourages students to pick up a copy of the Accommodation Listing Service Check List and refer to it when house hunting.
She also recommends speaking with the people currently residing in the property. “Talk to the people presently living in the unit and ask: a) why are they leaving and b) if there is anything you should know about the unit, and also the landlord,” Caird said. “It is important that students make an informed choice about what is best for them.”
“Many students think that closer to students is better housing,” said Ryan Quinlan Keech, commissioner of municipal affairs. “Some people will pay for a poor quality house because it is closer the campus. Closer to campus is not necessarily better after weighing out all the pros and cons.”
Georgia Smith is a member of the Student Property Assessment Team, SPAT. It is a committee under the Municipal Affairs Commission of the AMS dedicated to improving the quality of housing for students.
“We’re trying to raise awareness about the horrible conditions of student housing,” Smith said.
SPAT inspects student houses to make sure they are up to code and then suggests an appropriate course of action for students to take when there are any problems.
“SPAT wants to help students learn that they have options when it comes to dealing with inferior housing conditions or inattentive landlords,” Smith said. “We’re trying to get across that just because we’re students, doesn’t mean we have to live in substandard housing. We pay just as much as any other person would, sometimes more. We have the same rights as anyone living in Kingston.”
“You’d be surprised by what is actually considered to be substandard, but students are willing to live in simply because they believe it’s ‘student housing’ and part of the ‘university experience,’” said Smith. “It’s not.”
Tenants need to learn to ask for what they deserve. Jones said, “Rent prices will be whatever the market can bear. Students don’t understand that they are the market.”
~with files from Monica Cheung
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