Students Nova Scotia Releases Student Housing Recommendations
RELEASE: Students Nova Scotia Releases Student Housing Recommendations
April 26, 2022
For Immediate Release
Halifax, NS - Today, Students Nova Scotia is pleased to announce the release of Supporting Sustainable Student Housing: Recommendations for a Provincial Housing Strategy. This publication seeks to highlight and contextualize the housing challenges facing postsecondary students across the province, while providing recommendations to address these concerns.
“Last fall, we were pleased to see the Nova Scotia Government announce the planned creation of a Student Housing Strategy - the first of its kind on a provincial scale across Canada,” says Ben Fairhurst, Chair of Students Nova Scotia. “This announcement served as an acknowledgement of the unique ways in which many housing challenges are worsened or exacerbated within student populations.
To better understand and contextualize the issues students encounter when accessing housing across the province, StudentsNS led a Student Housing Campaign, sharing information and collecting feedback from students. This feedback showed that although the housing crisis is complex and multifaceted, there are a number of tangible steps to be taken that would increase the affordability, accessibility and quality of student housing without diminishing housing access among non-student populations.
“Through our consultation, we saw several overarching themes emerge,” says Kyle Cook, Vice-Chair of Students Nova Scotia. “Housing affordability and availability were consistently top of mind, but so too were concerns around the housing quality, and the lack of accessible information on tenancy rights and responsibilities. More importantly, we heard that housing challenges not only impacted students throughout their degree, but were a deciding factor for many when it came to accessing postsecondary education in the first place.”
These themes were separated into several domains for the purposes of our publication, including supply and affordability, legislation and landlord accountability, collaboration and awareness, and data collection and research. Each subsection is accompanied by its own principles, concerns and recommendations, providing additional context on key areas of focus.
To access the full publication, visit https://bit.ly/snshousingpaper.
For more information, contact:
Lydia Houck
StudentsNS Executive Director
(902) 476-2367
Students Nova Scotia is the province’s largest student advocacy organization, representing 20,000 students at Acadia University, Cape Breton University, Saint Mary’s University and St. FX University.