Affordable Montreal housing co-op underway for Concordia students

Affordable and well-located student housing is on the way forConcordiaUniversity students, according to student housing development group UTILE.

With funding from theConcordiaStudent Union (CSU), UTILE says it plans to build a modelfor university housing in Montreal.

• University students struggle to find affordable housing in Montreal
• Millennials thinking small for affordable housing
• Downtown Montreal hotel to become student residence

The CSU has raised $1.85 million so far from a $1 per-credit fee-levy fromConcordiastudents for the Popular University Student Housing (PUSH) fund.

The two organizationsplan to build ahousing unit with 100 to 150 rooms, with a maximum rent of $450.

"Montreal is the second largest student city in North America," TerryWilkings, general co-ordinator of the CSU, said. "If you look at the universities and the residence halls they provide, they only provide about 5,000 beds."

"So clearly there's a deficit between the number of beds that the university is willing to provide to students, and the number of students."

He added that this means students are subject to prices of therental market.

Some hotels have been converted into student housing to help meet the need for housing, like EVO Montreal but the cost of one of EVO's converted hotel rooms is $775 per month for double occupancy. For a single person, it comes to$1,200 per month.

ThisConcordiastudent housing will be not-for-profit, affordable, and accessible to the majority of the student population, saidUTILEco-ordinatorLaurentLevesque.

The team is nowlooking for a plot of land on which to develop itshousing project. The goal is to find alocation close to one of Concordia's two campusesin theVille-Marieor in Notre-Dame-de-Grce boroughs, where the university's Loyola campus is located.

• McMaster to build off-campus grad student housing
• UBC micro-apartments planned to address student housing crunch

The university's students will be prioritised when it comes time to fill up vacancies since the money was raised from fee levies.

The housing unit will be operating as a co-operative.This will ensure that everyone from the Concordiacommunity is included in the project, says Levesque.

"Ultimately, at UTILE, our objective is not to develop a single building and try to handle all of this demand it's to multiply the offer,"Levesquesaid.

"We have this immediate need for 4,000 rooms, and that's why this PUSH fund was createdso we can have this financial vehicle to be able to actually build more and more buildings like this."