A hot real estate market, COVID-19 fears and a “double cohort” are making things difficult for Georgian College students to find safe and affordable housing this fall.
“In regards to housing, it’s a bit of a different year,” said Brian Muscat, Georgian College’s dean of students. “We have heard there are some landlords who would normally house students (that) are not housing students this year.”
Muscat said Barrie’s on-campus residences will be full in the fall, but clarifies that for this year, "full" refers to being at a lower capacity due to the school’s COVID-19 precautions.
“This is in case an outbreak were to happen, we could separate and move some people around,” he said.
While there is a wait-list for on-campus options, Muscat said some off-campus options, such as Georgian Green in Barrie, which is independently owned and operated, are still accepting students for the fall.
“There are some options, but what we’re not really sure about is options within the broader community,” he said.
Overall, Muscat doesn’t foresee the student rental market being a major issue as about 70 per cent of their course offerings will still be available through remote delivery.
“So, our numbers of students who need to find housing will be drastically reduced from a normal year,” he said. “The onus is on students, (but) we do help students with that. We think it’s going to balance out, but we don’t know for sure.
“We want to make sure students have options."
Muscat says the issue varies from area to area as well. He points to the Owen Sound area being more difficult for students to find off-campus housing as there is less opportunity in the area overall.
He noted the southern Georgian Bay area around Collingwood can also be challenging as well as there’s no on-campus residence, clarifying that the area tends to have a lot of existing residents attending that campus so the need isn’t as great.
Georgian also has an arrangement with some southern Georgian Bay resorts where students will not only be housed, but also offered part-time employment at the resorts if needed.
In Orillia, Muscat says they have an arrangement with Lakehead University to house some Georgian students in Lakehead residences if the need presents itself.
“We work in creative situations like those. We try to help students to find these creative solutions,” he said.
Georgian has on-campus residences at its Barrie, Orillia and Owen Sound campuses. When it comes to off-campus housing options, the college has a contract with online rental database Places4Students.com to assist students. The website has contracts with approximately 160 colleges and universities across Canada, including Georgian College, to help connect students with off-campus housing options.
As of this week, there are only 16 listings on the site for Barrie students, one for Orillia and two for Owen Sound. Midland, Muskoka/Bracebridge, Orangeville and the South Georgian Bay campuses all have zero vacancies, sublets or roommate listings.
“Schools from all over have reached out to us saying they’re dealing with a shortage of student housing for the upcoming year,” said Mark Taylor, director of accounts for Places4Students. “We’re hoping to reach out to maybe empty-nesters who might have an extra room in their home, or somebody who hasn’t been a student landlord before.”
“There is a need in the community,” he added.
According to Taylor, there are a few reasons this year has been more of a struggle than previous years.
“Number one, we had a hot real estate market. Some landlords just sold their properties, so we’ve lost some student landlords in the last year,” he said.
Some also have a fear of renting right now because of COVID-19, Taylor added, especially when it comes to international students who are travelling from countries with different restrictions and vaccination rules in place.
“We also have a double cohort of students. We have first-year students from last year who studied from home that are now heading to campus along with all the new first-year students,” said Taylor.
“It’s almost like there are double the amount of people now looking for a place to live,” he added.
One of the benefits of housing a student is the ability to barter a mutually beneficial arrangement, Taylor said.
“We have a lot of what we call ‘mom-and-pop landlords,’ so they own a home, or have a second property, or are renting out a room in their home that has some shared spaces,” he said. “It can create some extra income.
"Some will offer reduced rent for an exchange of maybe some small chores around the property like shovelling the driveway. They come up with some of these unique agreements.”
If you’re interested in becoming a landlord or offering a room to a Georgian College student, contact Places4Students at 1-866-766-0767, through email at [email protected] or visit their website by clicking here.
