It's the nightmare every student dreads. You move away from home to college only to find yourself homeless. Come the Christmas holidays you're still searching for accommodation and sleeping on someone's floor.
These days, it's the lot of an increasing number of students - particularly those attending third level in Dublin.
The current crisis in student accommodation, particularly in Dublin, is well documented. Students' unions reckon that many youngsters seeking self-catering accommodation in the city can expect to be searching for a couple of months. Many of them started as early as July.
People are queuing for hours to view flats, and it's not uncommon for 300 people to make telephone enquiries about a single flat in one day, according to Sarah Treffkorn, assistant accommodation officer at UCD students' union. The crisis, however, is less about the availability of property and more about a shortage of affordable accommodation. The simple fact is that rental costs, particularly in Dublin, have risen enormously this year and students lack the wherewithall to pay for them.
Landlords, say the students unions, are cashing in on the fact that many properties in traditional flatland areas - Rathmines and Ranelagh for example - have been reconverted into family dwellings. "This year the average rise in rents is 20 per cent, but in some areas of the city it is way in excess of that," says Alan Mac Simoin, TCD students' union accommodation officer. "A lot of houses in Rathmines, Ranelagh, Harold's Cross, Terenure and Drumcondra that were in flats are being sold and reverting back to family homes. The trend started in the early 1990s and no new replacement properties are being built." Another significant factor, he notes, is that throughout this decade few local authority houses have been built. As a result, students are now forced to compete with young couples and working people seeking homes. "Nowadays people are forced to spend six or seven years on local authority housing lists, and this puts extra pressure on the private rental market."
To landlords, almost any other tenants are preferable to students. Foreign students find it particularly difficult to secure accommodation. "A lot of landlords are racist," comments a union official. "They ring up and say, `We'll take anyone as long as they're not black.' The average student spends about two months looking for a flat, but black students spend double that."
"Landlords don't like students," Treffkorn agrees. "Sometimes to get a flat people have to lie and say they're professionals." The rental trap puts huge pressure on students. Bedsits that last year were going for just under £40 per week are now costing almost £50.
A room of your own is luxury few students can afford. Most students share a bedroom - in some instances with as many as three other students.
"The full maintenance grant is about £45 per week," Treffkorn explains. "It's based on the academic year and not the full calendar year. Most people start flat hunting in July or August, so they have to pay rent for a full year. The shortfall is huge. "Most students have part-time jobs on Fridays, Saturday and Sundays. They have to work if they want to pay the rent, even if it means skipping lectures on Fridays. "If you're on a grant and your parents can afford to give you £20 a week, say, you have to find the extra yourself. If you lose your job, you can't pay your rent; and if you can't pay your rent, you can't be in Dublin; and if you're not in Dublin, you can't go to college. "It's very stressful, especially at exam time when you have to work and can't spend every minute studying." "I fear for the worst," says Ross O'Daly, overall president of the DIT students' union. "Students are coming into Dublin and they're going to have to fork out for high rents and deposits for accommodation and then they have to pay for books, equipment and general living expenses. It's going to put huge pressure on them and more and more people are going to end up not being able to cope." Already, O'Daly notes, a very high percentage of students are graduating from college with huge debts. "Independence is a great thing, but the Government doesn't do enough for people going through third-level," O'Daly argues.
However, despite the shortage of self-catering accommodation in Dublin, there are still plenty of digs available. "I expect a surplus of offers for digs," TCD's Mac Simoin says. As house prices rise and mortgages become increasingly more expensive, more householders are offering catered accommodation to students as a means of covering their payments, he says. While digs are suitable for first years who are finding their feet, older students prefer self-catering accommodation. "If you're 18, 19 or 20, you don't want to be a surrogate son or daughter," Mac Simoin observes.
"We're adults," Treffkorn says. "We want to live on our own and we can't." The price of digs is also on the increase. "Last year digs were costing £40 to £50 per five-day week. This year they're costing £65 to £75," according to Ross O'Daly.
Accommodation is cheaper and easier to find outside Dublin, says Siobhan Fearon, USI's accommodation officer. In Waterford, Tralee, Athlone and Cork, for example, you can get a flat for £30 per week or less. In Galway, it will cost you £35. However, she warns, within the next 18 months rent hikes are likely in cities outside Dublin. For now, however, students in Cork are particularly blessed, according to UCC's accommodation officer, Dennis MacDonald. Plenty of private accommodation apart, the UCC campus boasts 300 places and there are 1,400 places in purpose-built, privately operated student housing blocks nearby.
Cork notwithstanding, it's clear that some very real thought and considerable action must go into the provision of student accommodation. House-hunting used to be fun, but not any more. Students have enough pressures in their lives, and efforts to increase third-level participation rates will be ineffective unless the correct supports are put in place. Among these, adequate grants and decent, affordable accommodation are vital.
USI, meanwhile, is investigating a number of initiatives which could help the situation. These include more money for student campus accommodation, tax incentives for landlords renting to students and the establishment of a student housing association.
