Key takeaways:
- ‘This has been a difficult year for finding housing.’
- P.E.I.’s housing situation is taking a toll on international students expecting to move here for the fall term.
Several post-secondary students are still attempting to ensure housing accommodations on Prince Edward Island with less than a month till the semester starts.
Tanguy Rugamba, a fifth-year engineering student at UPEI, usually starts looking for accommodation in mid-August. This year, he began his quest in July. He, nonetheless, hasn’t had any luck.
“The school year is nearly here, and I don’t know how it’s going to go,” he said.
“If I don’t find a home by then, I’ll have to stay [in] a hotel for the time being … because there’s no other way I can work with it.”
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Nearly 400 people are on the waitlist at UPEI for a place in one of the three on-campus living buildings.
Relying on the room, several students have been waiting since February. But all the places officially filled up by the middle of April.
“This has been a difficult year for finding accommodation,” stated Laura O’Laney, acting director for ancillary services at UPEI.
“It means a lot of pressure and emotions are high … we’re getting many teary phone calls and doing whatever we can as a university to find them a home to stay.”
Source – CBC News
