Student alliance conducts housing survey

Having landlord troubles? Is it difficult finding an affordable place to live? Or are you happy with your housing situation?

If you’re a student living off-campus in the community, the Halifax Student Alliance is looking to hear from you. The organization, which represents 20,000 students in the HRM, has launched a new online survey – www.StudentsRent.ca – to learn more about the issues that students face as renters.

“We made student housing a top priority for the organization, but we didn’t have the primary research available that we needed to inform our recommendations,” explains Mark Coffin, VP Education of the DSU and chair of the HSA. “We’re looking to hear from the students themselves about the issue so that we can better lobby government for the right policy changes.”

This is not the first time that the HSA has conducted its own research: over 1,500 students gave their thoughts on violence in the city as part of a submission to the Mayor’s Roundtable on Violence. Given the narrower audience of this new survey – it’s designed for off-campus students only – the alliance does not expect as good a participation rate but are hopeful that the important issue at hand will attract students from all schools in the city to take part.

“Housing is an issue for all members of our community, but students in particular are more exposed to it,” says Zach Dayler, executive director of the HSA. “They’re often living on their own for the first time and coming into contact with landlords, contracts and other issues.”

The survey is not the only initiative that the alliance is pursuing at present; they also just completed a pre-budget submission to HRM Council outlining their vision for a late-night transit pilot program. A late-night transit route was one of the issues that came out of the Mayor’s Roundtable process. You can read their submission online.

“We’re looking to remind council of the issue, hoping that they can take this and establish a solution that fits our community’s needs,” says Mr. Dayler.