As school year starts, students are being squeezed out of Quebec's rental market

As post-secondary students across Quebec return to classes this week, there's one thing on their school list many still don't have — an apartment.

Housing groups dedicated to helping the student population find a place to live say it's becoming increasingly difficult, as the housing crunch leads to more demand for fewer affordable units.

Megha Bisht, an international student from India, has seen the problem first-hand. In a few weeks, she'll start her PhD chemistry program at the Université de Montréal — but as the school year approaches, she still doesn't have a place.

"I tried looking for other student housing or university housing near my university, I contacted a lot of them, most of them are full," she said. "If they're available, they cost more than half of my stipend."

It's a problem that's getting worse every year, said Laurent Levesque, the executive director of UTILE, a non-profit that builds affordable housing for students. 

The province's ongoing housing crisis has made it even more difficult, he explained.

"Households who haven't found a place to live July 1 will keep looking for a place the rest of summer," he said. "When the semester comes … there's very few apartments that are available for low-income students."

Adia Giddings, who works with Concordia University's Housing and Job Resource Centre, is also seeing the pinch. Up to 10 students a day are reaching out to them for help, she said.

Many out of province students are "really struggling" and turning to temporary housing arrangements, she said. Those that do find places have their own set of problems.

"We're also seeing a rise in students having to pay landlords security deposits, which are illegal in Quebec," she said. "But they don't have any other way of proving to the landlord that they can pay."

Levesque said Montreal isn't the only city struggling. When it comes to available, affordable student housing, he said Quebec City and nearby Lévis are among the worst in the province.

He said that 84 per cent of students in the region are tenants, and the majority of them spend more than a third of their budget on rent. Meanwhile, the cost of rent for student housing has risen rapidly over the past four years, he said.

"It's a situation that's deteriorating rapidly," he said. 

Akpelozim Lokoun, a coordinator for a student group at Université Laval, said more than 200 people are waiting for a spot on the school's student housing waiting list. In the meantime, he said students need to work more just to make ends meet.