Camosun College is in dire need of student housing. The creation of student housing offers community, certainty, and security. Private rental vacancy rates within the city remain at all-time lows, and the cost of rent continues to soar.
In 2019, Camosun published their Campus Master Plan; it highlighted numerous areas for student housing on both the Lansdowne and Interurban campuses. Luckily, it appears the process has begun. Camosun has submitted a proposal for student housing on the Lansdowne campus to the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training. The size, scope, and timeline of the proposal is unknown (Camosun would not provide Nexus with a copy of the proposal).
What is known is that the current NDP provincial government has committed to build 8,000 student beds throughout BC over a 10-year period between 2018 and 2028. For a rapidly growing province with a housing crisis unfolding in its every crevice, that’s a meagre amount. It is simply not enough.
To give credit where it is due, the failure began at the hands of the previous provincial government. Only a measly 130 student beds had been created under the 16-year-long reign by the BC Liberals. A long-term failure to create additional student housing under the BC Liberals combined with a lack of ambition by the NDP is steering both current and future students into unknown territory.
The cost of a one-bedroom in Victoria rose by 19 percent last year to an astonishing average price of $1,863 a month. All levels of government must address the housing crisis with a sense of urgency. Post-secondary institutions such as Camosun play a vital role in alleviating the crisis faced by students. They have a responsibility to their students, and to the community, to do so.
One of the barriers to affordable housing is the availability, and high cost, of land. Fortunately, campuses have vast amounts of land that sit underutilized. For every bed created on campus, one bed becomes available in the community.
The CRD houses both Camosun campuses as well as UVic and Royal Roads, with a total of approximately 45,000 students a year, yet only enough on-campus beds for 2,300 (all at UVic). This equates to a disgraceful 5.1 percent of the region’s student population being housed on campus.
The lack of on-campus housing is harming the ability for students to concentrate on their studies, in addition to the valuable ability to pursue extra-curricular campus activities. Rather than join a club or volunteer in their spare time, students must prioritize paying for a costly roof over their head. It’s not fair to domestic or international students, and it’s not fair to communities which these campuses are a part of.
Camosun College—indeed, all post-secondary institutions—must not be complacent with the status quo. I believe that once a development is announced on a campus, the students and administrators have cause to celebrate, but they then must immediately pivot their energy to planning the next housing development in order to truly respond to the housing crisis, a crisis that has no end in sight.