N.S. government announces plans to fund four new community college student residences

Eirik Larsen knows the challenge of finding affordable student housing all too well.

The president of the student association for the NSCC Institute of Technology campus in the north end of Halifax has been living with family while attending school because he cannot find a place to rent that he can afford.

It's a challenge many of his fellow students are facing.

"It's hard to focus on your studies while you're also worrying about paying rent or even finding a new place to move into," he told reporters on Tuesday.

Larsen was responding after the provincial government announced plans to build four new student residences at NSCC campuses in Springhill, Kentville, Bridgewater and at the Institute of Technology campus in Halifax.

"We desperately need more housing for everyone, but especially for students," said Larsen.

Details on the new projects are limited.

Advanced Education Minister Brian Wong said design work would begin soon on the sites, which will be located on or near the campuses on provincially-owned land. He said it would be a few months before he could provide timelines or costs for the work.

The Halifax campus will get 100 beds, the Kentville residence will have 90 beds and there will be 40 beds each at the campuses in Springhill and Bridgewater.

"We're really trying to make sure that the students that we need to be the workers for today and tomorrow are able to have a place to live in order to get the education that they need and the education that they deserve," Wong told reporters.

These residences are in addition to three previously announced by Wong at NSCC campuses in Dartmouth and Stellarton. Two of those are slated to open in September, while the third is scheduled to open in September of 2025. That work was budgeted to cost $100 million and a government spokesperson said Tuesday that it remains on track.

Don Bureaux, president of NSCC, said the locations of the new residence buildings were selected based on the greatest need for housing at campuses across the province. He told reporters he expects the college and government to discuss further projects.

"We're looking at all options right now," he said.

"We're hoping to continue to look at the campus footprint across the entire province and where there's more acute needs, we're going to work with our partners — government and other partners — to see if we can find solutions."

What students will pay to live in these four new residences, and the three others under construction, is yet to be determined. As a reference point, however, the cost for a single room for the 2023-24 academic year at three existing NSCC housing facilities ranges from $8,360 to $10,574.

Bureaux said the college keeps the rooms as affordable as possible.

"We're here not to make money, if you will, off these rooms. We are here to break even on our rooms."

Minister says talks continue with universities

While the provincial government has been busy announcing projects for NSCC students, it's yet to announce any major projects for universities in the province. Wong's promised student housing strategy has been delayed and he offered no further information on Tuesday about when or if it will be completed and released.

"We're a government of action," he said.

"We announce things as they come. We're not going to wait to package things up in a pre-package in order to put out a strategy."

The minister said talks continue with universities about their housing needs, but things are different because they are not "a direct arm of government" the way the community college is.

Brandon Hamilton, the policy and research officer for Students Nova Scotia, said any news about student housing is good news, but the government needs to release its housing strategy for students.

"We are concerned about our university students, as well, who haven't heard anything on the front of student housing," he said in an interview.

Hamilton noted that the recently-released provincial housing strategy identified the need to do more for students across Nova Scotia. He said nine per cent of students in the province do not have a place to live.

"It's not that they're living with their parents, it's that they do not have a solution for housing and they're waiting for it. The announcement [of the student housing strategy] was supposed to come in the spring and here it is almost wintertime, it's getting colder out, and we still don't have that solution for all students of Nova Scotia."

There needs to be more collaboration on the issue with students, said Hamilton. His organization wants to see a committee established that can hold the government accountable to make sure there is action to meet the needs of campuses around the province.