Five days before Christmas Day graduate students and their families living at the An Clachan Complex and John Orr Tower received notices from Queen’s University notifying them of an impending rent increase four times above the provincial guidelines.
On Dec. 22, the Instagram @queenscommunitytenants, run by the Queen’s Community Housing Tenants Association (QCHTA), announced that residents of the two complexes received a printed notice on their doorsteps notifying them of a 10.5 per cent increase in rent from current rates. According to the notice, delivered on Dec. 20, the new rates will come into effect in September 2024.
All units in both An Clachan and John Orr Tower will be affected. All tenants looking to remain in their units next academic year must sign onto a new 12-month rental agreement by January 31, 2024. This is a full month before the University’s initially mandated re-sign date.
According to Chloe Stewart, a postdoctoral fellow who manages the @queenscommunitytenants Instagram , John Orr and An Clachan tenants were expecting to hear communication from the University about its plans for rental increases and construction on units in these buildings, however, notice of the rent increase came as a surprise.
“They’ve been quite cagey about sharing information with us about what is going on,” Stewart said in an interview with The Journal. “Queen’s has chosen at most steps not to invoke any of the tenants in any of the conversations surrounding our living situations.”
Residents of John Orr and An Clachan first heard whispers of changes to community housing—including potential displacement of tenants during construction, and caps on leases that align with students’ programs, this was packaged alongside potential rental increases—in October when the Society for Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) learned from representatives of Queen’s Community Housing.
READ MORE: An Clachan facing impending construction, SGPS kept in the dark
An open letter sent to the University on behalf of the QCHTA asked the University for greater transparency regarding changes to rental policies and rental fees for tenants. Though the University’s response letter indicated Community Housing was in with campus stakeholders that included student leaders, Stewart said the University didn’t consult any tenants about the proposed changes.
Open letter from Queen’s Community Housing Tenants Association to Community Housing istration.
Queen’s Community Housing’s letter in response to the Queen’s Community Housing Tenants Association.
Stewart explained living in An Clachan and John Orr is one of the main ways graduate students stay afloat at Queen’s. The current average salary for students 2022 collective agreement went into effect. After tuition, graduate students are left with approximately $12,000 to live on, which often isn’t enough to make rent, Stewart said.
“For example, my wife is a graduate student in the cultural studies department, and she makes $20,000 a year. After tuition, the percentage of her wages that goes to rent here at An Clachan—with the lower rent—is 77 per cent,” Stewart said. “We live in the least expensive apartment at An Clachan because it’s unfurnished and it’s one bedroom.”
While units in John Orr Tower don’t have the space to accommodate families, lease holders at the An Clachan Complex with families can spend 100 per cent of their income on two- or three-bedroom units.
According to Stewart, 14 of the 19 buildings at the An Clachan Complex consist of two- or three-bedroom units, several of which house graduate students and their families, whether this be their spouses and young children, or their parents.
Several tenants of Queen’s Community Housing are international students, who are in precarious situations due to a lack of familiarity with Canada’s rental system and being subject to higher tuition fees, Stewart said.
“For people who live in these housing situations this is basically the thing keeping them out of being homeless,” Stewart said. “I spoke to a number of people who were saying essentially, if they raised the rent [they] will have to drop out [since they] can’t afford to live anywhere else.”
Stewart mentioned QCHTA has a desire to the wider anti-austerity movement at Queen’s as the group looks to continue their advocacy for tenant interests. Stewart said QCHTA is planning on increasing their efforts to organize both Queen’s students and the local Kingston community.
The QCHTA has scheduled a meeting with the University around January 26 where they hope to negotiate on behalf of tenants. QCHTA is pushing the University to attend a town hall meeting in January where community housing tenants will be present.
“They haven’t just randomly decided to also raise our rent at the same time. We want to get people seeing what’s going on and getting involved,” Stewart said.
When asked if she had a message for the University, Stewart hoped the University recognizes students won’t be drawn to Queen’s if the University continues with the rental rate increase as planned.
“Raising this rent will make people drop out, it will make grad students drop out, this is going to affect the prestige of the University because it looks bad on the university when graduate students don’t finish their program,” Stewart said. “When they drop out, people are not going to be doing the work the university needs done that the University is pushing on to them. Things are going to start grinding to a halt.”
“We’ve seen over and over again that appealing to the humanity of the University means nothing, they don’t care about any of these issues.”
The Journal reached out to the University for comment, however, didn’t receive a response in time for publication as the University’s Integrated Communications Office has closed operations for the winter holidays.
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