|
27 June 2002
uwRyan.com This website is meant to provide value to UW student by delivering information. It will also supplement the column that I write for Imprint by providing extra information on some of the topics about which I will write in addition to the text of each column. Please provide feedback on what I write as well as give me suggestions of topics to cover. You can send e-mail to me to ryan[at]uwryan[dot]com. |
Growth in housing and demandUnraveling the state of housing in Waterloo
After students know that they will be enrolled at UW but before they hit the books they need to find a place to live. With UW and WLU enrolment and the population of the city of Waterloo growing, the demand for housing in the area will increase and require a similar increase in supply. There has been discussion and speculation around whether or not and to what degree there will be a strain on student housing in Waterloo. There are many factors that affect housing supply and demand, so many data need to be collected for an informed study. In this exposition, I will refer to some of recent discussion on the subject, highlight some issues affecting housing and provide some data on recent and projected supply and demand. In the 31 May Imprint, Melissa Graham quoted Bob Truman as saying, “One of the contributing factors towards the demand not being so high is that we’ve already accommodated those 4,600 students. And so as they leave the system there has been fewer year-one students behind them so that the total university enrolment doesn’t keep going up.” Truman was referring to the large frosh class in 1999, regular students in that class will graduate in 2003, co-op students will graduate in 2004. Conrad Grebel University College Dean of Students Mary Brubaker-Zehr was quoted in the 12 June Gazette saying “With the looming housing shortage for students in the Waterloo area, the opportunity to provide more housing on campus for our students, especially our senior students, is very exciting.” In the 17 April Waterloo Chronicle, Andrea Bailey wrote “. . . the housing offices for both schools claim their off-campus housing lists have more units offered than are being requested . . .” and quoted UW director of business operations Bud Walker saying “It looks like off-campus single student housing surpluses will continue.” Waterloo’s lodging house licensing bylaw says that in order for a house to get a license it must be “at least seventy five metres (75m) from any other property containing a lodging house.” This means that, close to the university where there are many lodging houses, few or no extra houses can be licensed. As supply must be increased to meet a growing demand, students will have to live further from campus or in lower quality housing. In the 15 May Gazette Barbara Elve wrote “What students really want, says Walker, is housing on or close to campus, of reasonable quality that is safe clean and adequately maintained.” A survey done by Residence Life Co-ordinator Pam Charbonneau indicates a student preference for housing close to campus with a majority of students wanting to live on campus or on the edge of campus. Some components of supply and demand are easy to determine but others are not. The known demand consists of the Fall enrolment and projected enrolment at UW and WLU accounting for off-campus co-op and distance students. This demand is increased by the non-student population increase in Waterloo. The known supply includes on-campus residence spaces of all types at UW and WLU and the 961 lodging houses licensed by the city. Unknown supply includes residences outside the definition of a lodging house, illegally operated lodging houses and houses where students live with parents. According to information on enrolment from the two universities, the known demand in Fall 2001 was 24,526 and the known supply was 11,485. One can be confident that all students did find housing last fall, which means unknown supply makes up a significant part of total supply. Assuming constant or increasing non-student demand, the difference between known supply and demand in consecutive years represents required off-campus growth. There was an increase of 43 in 2000 and 723 in 2001. Looking at projected demand and projected on-campus residence growth over the coming years, we can estimate how much off-campus housing will have to increase in the future. This difference must increase by 275 this year and will be required to increase by 743 in 2003. So the required increase over the next two years is almost three times the approximately 300 spaces that lodging houses expanded this year. So, is there a housing problem? There may or may not be depending on the accuracy of the universities' projections and how off-campus supply reacts to demand. It is a complicated issue and student government, university officials and the city government need to be open about the situation in order to address potential problems and so students can plan. Even if there are enough places for students to live they may not be good quality or close enough to campus. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An explanation of the sources and reliability of the above data will be posted by 2 July.
|