City of Waterloo leads country in providing housing for students, but remains 5,000 units short

Students across the country are back in classes, but many of them couldn’t find student housing.

A new report from Desjardins shows that Waterloo has the most student housing available amongst Canadian cities, but still falls well short of where it needs to be.

The report indicates that only 1 in 10 students in Canada have access to student housing.

The City of Waterloo has units of student housing for 35 per cent of their enrolment numbers, well above the national average of just over 10 per cent.

“Waterloo is the only community across Canada that took that really proactive approach to address the needs of students,” said Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe in an interview on the Mike Farwell Show on Sept. 6.

Even with all that good work, the city is still around 5,000 units of housing short of meeting the needs of the student population.

“We’re pleased that the University of Waterloo is soon going to start construction on a 500-student residence, and we know that Conestoga is looking to convert some buildings into student residence, but it continues to be an ongoing challenge,” said McCabe.

Student enrolment at the University of Waterloo has remained fairly steady over the last four years, with roughly 38,000 students in classes this Winter semester.

Since 2018, the number of students enrolled in Conestoga College’s six campuses has more than doubled from just over 16,000 to nearly 41,000 last semester.

The report from Desjardins added that 1.2 million students in Canada rent around the communities their post-secondary institution is located in instead, driving up rental prices for everyone, especially low-income families and young adults.