Students struggle with region's rental crunch

People looking to rent accommodation in Ottawa are in a desperate search.

With the current vacancy rate in Ottawa at 0.7 per cent, and thousands of university students expected to arrive in the next month, housing analysts predict the situation will only get worse.

Ryan Kazlowski, a second-year student at Carleton University, says after two days of calling about vacancies, he and his girlfriend have yet to see an apartment.

Trudy Sutton, executive director of Housing Help, says her agency traditionally assists low-income people find housing, but is now seeing desperate students and professionals asking for help.

"It has long-term effects on peoples' health, on stability, on children's health, on their schooling," she says.

Sutton says while last year at this time her agency had listings for 113 available rental units, this year there are only 15.