Student Housing NS is a non-profit housing provider that recently switched to supporting and advocating for the housing needs of students province-wide. The group also leads research into student housing needs to develop support. Right now, they’re asking all postsecondary students in Nova Scotia to complete a five-minute survey on the realities they face when looking for and securing housing so they can better understand the problem and how to help—ahead of the fall semester.
Their survey can be found here and is open until Sep. 15. Survey results and a comprehensive Student Housing NS student housing resource guide will be published in late September.
So, what is the current problem facing students?
In Nova Scotia, there is no province-wide student housing plan despite this being home to 11 universities and colleges, and thousands of students each year. Advocacy group Students Nova Scotia wrote in a release this past February that “as of 2022, nearly 9% of students are currently unhoused, with an additional 17% of students living in crowded housing without enough beds for their household.”
On-campus housing is available at some of Nova Scotia’s universities and colleges, with Nova Scotia Community College just recently opening its first two student housing buildings—opening at capacity. However, on-campus housing is primarily designed for first-year students and isn’t ordinarily available year-round or long-term. That means the majority of students are looking for off-campus housing.
In Halifax—where seven of these schools have campuses—the vacancy rate for rental units has remained at an all-time low of 1% since 2021. In addition, Halifax's rent increased by an average of 18% from July last year to this year–one of the steepest rate increases nationwide.
Just how many students are there? In October 2023, there were 10,051 full-time undergraduate and graduate students across the five universities with campuses based solely in Halifax–the Atlantic School of Theology, Mount Saint Vincent University, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Saint Mary’s University, and the University of King’s College. There were an additional 29,697 full-time undergraduate and graduate students at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Community College—both of which have campuses in and outside the HRM.
So, thousands; thousands of students look for housing each year if they don’t already have it—see fixed-term leases.
Mitchell Archibald is the executive director of Student Housing NS, which has built and provided safe, reliable and affordable student housing in Halifax since the ‘60s.
He says, “folks are pretty desperate and scrambling for whatever they can find.” It’s clear to Archibald that Halifax and other university towns in Nova Scotia have become seller’s markets.
“If you don't have a rental near a campus in a low-vacancy area that also has no additional dorm residence rooms available—there really aren't many options other than ‘couch surf or don't come,’” says Archibald. “That’s the grim reality of no housing.”
Archibald says that in September 2023, Student Housing NS had tenants moving into Peter Green Hall—a student housing apartment building on Wellington Street in Halifax they previously managed—and who were living in Airbnbs. “Obviously, not every student, and indeed most students, can't afford to do that,” says Archibald. He’s seen international students “spending all their savings in their first few years just to get here, and hoping they find [long-term] housing” by shelling out for short-term, high-priced rentals. “That's not a tenable solution for most people.”
For nearly six decades, Student Housing NS managed Peter Green Hall to consistently undercut the average rent cost by $500 per month, says Archibald. They bought the land in the 1960s and partnered with Dal to create the 109-tenant student housing building as it exists today. It is affordable housing for current students, focusing on families and allows students to stay for compassionate lengths after graduation. The group managed the building up until this June, when their lease with Dal expired. Says Archibald, when their lease with Dal expired Peter Green Hall was self-sustaining as it always has been and had “the same rent and the same tenants.”
This past year, the group changed its focus to providing and advocating for safe and affordable student housing solutions across Nova Scotia. It recently opened an 11-unit, 22-bed affordable student housing building in Wolfville, where Acadia University resides.
“No one gave us free money for Peter Green Hall,” says Archibald. “It was just a low-interest loan over a really long period.” With provincial government support, he hopes this will be possible for the group going forward. “The government is looking at how to support the community housing sector, and to that, I say: ‘We're the only student housing non-profit in the maritime region that is focused solely on student housing.’”
Archibald hopes that hearing from students on this current housing survey will help paint a complete picture of student housing needs now and going forward. “Survey results will be aggregated and de-identified, and information will not be used to identify you,” the overview reads.
By asking questions of postsecondary students including how they pay for housing, what they pay, and how secure they feel in their current situation or whether they’ll need to move soon, the group can advocate with evidence in a town with a 1% vacancy rate.
“Boosting the community housing sector helps with the student housing crisis and the housing crisis in general,” Archibald says. “That's where the money needs to be going.”