{"id":71724,"date":"2023-10-10T12:16:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T18:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=71724"},"modified":"2023-10-10T12:33:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T18:33:35","slug":"housing-crisis-leaves-students-struggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/10\/10\/housing-crisis-leaves-students-struggling\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing crisis leaves students struggling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><div style=\"width: 1920px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-71724-1\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Calgary-housing-crisi.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Calgary-housing-crisi.mp4\">http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Calgary-housing-crisi.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<p>According to an online report by Rentals.ca, the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment in Edmonton is now as much as rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Calgary and experts say that is unsustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to Dhaval Pandya who moved from Toronto to Calgary, many other people are finding out about the drastic changes in Calgary\u2019s housing market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe housing market is getting expensive day by day and harder to afford, I wish I had more information on the housing situation here,\u201d said Pandya.<\/p>\n<p>According to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.calgary.ca\/social-services\/low-income\/housing-needs-assessment.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Housing Needs Assessment,<\/a> report released by the City of Calgary, there has been an almost 40 per cent increase in rent and a 37 per cent increase in the price of a detached home since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The report also found that Calgarians spend more than 30 per cent of their income on housing.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Calgary has avoided answering any questions on this issue, they are trying to do some damage control by bringing the housing affordability task force to ensure that Calgary citizens do not have to spend more than 30 per cent of their income.<\/p>\n<p>Volga Pannu who works as a security officer at a hospital has been a homeowner for many years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my experience, interest rates increasing on mortgages has caused rent to increase,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The Bank of Canada has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/business\/bank-of-canada-july-meeting-1.6904330\">repeatedly raised its key interest rate<\/a> over the past year, to fight inflation. This has also made it more difficult for those with a mortgage to keep up with payments.<\/p>\n<p>There are many people in Calgary who blame landlords for an increase in rent and in many situations, this may or may not be fair to them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am attempting to make rent as affordable as I can for my tenants, however, when I renewed my mortgage, the new interest rate increased my mortgage by $500 a month, I had no choice by to raise the rent for my tenants on their rental renewal,&#8221; said Pannu.<\/p>\n<p>Making this situation worse for students, the minimum wage is only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alberta.ca\/minimum-wage\">$15<\/a> for Alberta.<\/p>\n<p>Saurabh Thorve is a recent SAIT graduate who\u00a0works a minimum-wage job and is financially frustrated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis situation is affecting me a lot mentally and because of it I am unable to save any money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>There are even some Calgarians such as Nika Kuperis who are moving out of the city to maintain a better standard of life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would rather commute to the city than live here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/creastats.crea.ca\/board\/redd-migration\">The Canadian Real Estate Association<\/a> around 33,958 people moved to Alberta, which is 5.8 per cent more compared to 2022.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71713\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71713\" style=\"width: 354px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-71713\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230928-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0070-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"354\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230928-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0070-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230928-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0070-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230928-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0070-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230928-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0070-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230928-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0070-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71713\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>TIGHT SPACE<\/strong>: House mates talking while two of them decide on a dress. (Photo by Paritosh Hirulkar\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kuperis believes that the government is not doing anything to increase housing, even though a lot of people are migrating to Calgary from around Canada, and this is making housing costly.<\/p>\n<p>Calgary\u2019s <a href=\"file:\/\/\/Users\/sophialopez\/Downloads\/housing-needs-assessment-2023.pdf\">Housing\u00a0Needs Assessment<\/a> states that the population of Calgary is expected to increase by 1.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>The rate of household needs indicates that households that earn less than 65 per cent of the average salary and spend more than 30 per cent of their income in Calgary is just as much as the national rate.<\/p>\n<p>These data show that Calgary is on the verge of becoming as costly as Toronto or Vancouver when it comes to housing.<\/p>\n<p>This situation has become really hard for students as they are not even able to afford a single room to themselves. Niraj Dobaraya is an international student who is currently studying at the University of Calgary and has started sharing a room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would prefer to have a room by myself, but I can\u2019t really afford it,\u201d said Dobaraya.<\/p>\n<p>While students like Dobaraya have to share their rooms with friends or people they barely know, there are some students who are able to share their rooms with their siblings.<\/p>\n<p>Saurabh Thorve and his sister Sayali rented a two-bedroom apartment, but because of increased rent, they have now moved to a four-bedroom house so that they can share it with five other people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish I could go back to 2020 when the rents were affordable, even though I love living with my friends it sometimes feels like seven people in a house is too much,&#8221; said Sayali Thorve. &#8220;We sometimes have to wait in line just to use the bathroom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While some are worried about their current situation, others are worried about the next generation.<\/p>\n<p>Parents are worried about their children not able to afford a place to live. They are worried that it may impact their mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Long-time homeowner Rod Miller is going through the same feeling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a challenge for my children since they are at their home-buying age and it is just incredibly hard and costly to buy a house with this mortgage rate,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71706\" style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-71706\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-678x509.jpg 678w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-326x245.jpg 326w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/20230929-S2-Calgary-Housing-Crisis-PH-PH-0066-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>HOUSING FACTS<\/strong>: A graph representing and comparing Calgary&#8217;s housing market from 2020 and 2023. Source: City of Calgary (Graphic by Paritosh Hirulkar\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>According to an online report by Rentals.ca, the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment in Edmonton is now as much as rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Calgary and experts say that is unsustainable. Similar <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/10\/10\/housing-crisis-leaves-students-struggling\/\" title=\"Housing crisis leaves students struggling\">[ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":834,"featured_media":71712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Calgary Housing Crisis PH","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,1109],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-71724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-life","9":"category-mental-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71724"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71860,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71724\/revisions\/71860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}