The president of King’s College University Students’ Union says at least 20 students at her school have yet to find a place to live this year amid Halifax’s housing crisis.
“For the students who don’t have housing, I think they’re just going to feel lost,” Victoria Gibbs told Maritime Connection in an interview Sunday. “There’s not much they can do at this point except sit and wait and do more searches.”
Last month, King’s urged alumni to rent bedrooms or other accommodation to students. Gibbs said many in the community have since offered to help.
“It just comes from good-hearted people who have experience with students or are otherwise touched by the call to find a place to live,” she said.
But even with this community support, it’s not enough to help everyone looking for a place to live.
Most students started moving on Sunday. Classes start on Tuesday.
“That these students will essentially understand it as [they] to go maybe weeks before they get a place – if they get a place – is a testament to how desperate they are to go to school,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs doesn’t think anyone thought the housing situation would get this dire because much of the previous two school years had been spent online.
“We were half capacity in residence two years ago, we were still partially living in it last year, hybrid learning, online learning — people weren’t in town,” Gibbs said. “And now we’re full back in person.”
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