policy podcast

The podcast discusses the availability of housing for students in British Columbia and Canada. It highlights the barriers students face in finding on-campus and off-campus housing, such as limited availability, high prices, and discrimination from landlords. The podcast also mentions the impact of the housing crisis on students' ability to afford basic needs and continue their education. It discusses the National Housing Act and the National Housing Strategy Act as government efforts to address the housing crisis. The Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics emphasizes the right to equal access to housing and the need to reduce barriers for vulnerable populations. The podcast mentions the Homes for BC project, a 10-year plan to build 8,000 new on-campus beds, as a solution to the student housing crisis. However, it acknowledges the challenges in making housing more affordable and calls for greater government funding for on-campus housing. The podcast concludes by urging li Hello listeners, I am Maya Marshall and welcome to my social policy podcast. Today I am going to be discussing a social policy concern that has been affecting not only British Columbia but also all of Canada. This social policy concern also affects us as students and there needs to be policies implemented and changes made in order for students to stop being affected by this policy concern. That being said, my social policy concern is availability of housing for students in BC. During this podcast, I will highlight the barriers that have been keeping students from finding and obtaining on-campus as well as off-campus housing while attending post-secondary education. I will also discuss what government acts are responsible for this policy concern and how they are addressing this concern. And for the last part of this podcast, I will talk about the Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and how they address my policy concern as well as solutions to help with the student housing crisis. So get ready as I take us through my policy concern and what is being done to address it. The search for housing has been quite difficult for people living in BC. For the past 10 years, Canada has been in a housing crisis that has been affecting thousands of people nationwide. Something that people don't really think about when they think about the housing crisis is how it is actually affecting students. Students especially have been feeling the heat of the housing crisis as they try to find a place to live in order to carry out their studies. It's something that should just be so easy and guaranteed, but instead it is a struggle. And as universities are accepting more and more students than ever before, access to student housing has been a major concern. A survey conducted by the government of BC in 2021 concluded that around 83% of students in BC are tenants and the majority of them are spending more than a third of their budget on rent. The multiple factors that will be discussed further in this podcast are making finding housing for students seem impossible. As students, housing is very important. I'm lucky enough where I can still live at home while attending university, so I fortunately don't have to experience these struggles, but I still know that they are very real and I know a lot of people who are experiencing them. Because shelter is a basic human need for survival, so not having housing for a student is just not an option. Also, you perform best when you live in a place where you feel comfortable and safe, which is very important for students who need to study and work on assignments. After the pandemic kept students home in 2020, student housing became harder to find than ever and was pronounced one of the biggest housing crunches on record in 2021 when students could start returning back to campus. Also finding housing for students has been very complicated for the past few years. Finding places to rent off campus has been seen as a big struggle. Just finding places to apply for renting has been hard for students due to the scarce availability of rentals and the high prices of rentals as well. Students would most likely want to live somewhere that's close to campus, but the places that are available near campus are typically very limited due to high competition. And on top of that, places for rent near campuses are way too unaffordable for students to be living there. And if they do live there, they have to work lots of hours during the week in order to pay rent, which takes time away from their studies, causes them to be so much more busy, and it could lead them to burning out. Renting for the places that are affordable are usually very far from campus and require a long commute day by day just to get to school. And those places are usually more unsafe and in need in repairs. The more affordable places for renting also aren't as secure. They don't have as much privacy and they aren't very big, which leaves students with very limited space. And there also has been lots of issues with landlords not wanting to accept students as their tenants, which comes to a little bit of surprise because students are great profit opportunities for landlords. And typically landlords just want to make as much money as they can, but they aren't very considerate when it comes to students and only see them as means of profit, not as real people just trying to find a place to stay. But landlords are hesitant when looking at student applications because they worry about students just being loud and wanting to party and having lots of people over and they fear that they're going to damage their property. And those thoughts are valid, but that's stereotyping students a little bit because not all students just want to party all the time. They actually are trying to find a place to live while they focus on getting their studying done and getting their work done. So I think landlords should be a little more understanding of that. And also some students experience racism and sexism from landlords when looking for a place to rent. So landlords should definitely give students a chance and not overlook them when they apply to rent at their place. And so those were a lot of the reasons why finding housing off campus for students is quite difficult, but also finding and obtaining housing on campus for students isn't exactly easy either. The demand for off-campus rentals, since dormitory construction has not kept pace with enrollment and since students typically live in dorms for a year at least, most universities across BC actually grant guaranteed housing for first-year students. But as of 2021, when so many students were starting to return back to campus, those guarantees aren't promised anymore due to the high demand of student housing. So instead of getting granted on-campus housing by a university, you are put on a wait list and have to hope for the best. During my research on my policy concern, I found a really good academic source written by Nick Ewan and Tashara, which touches on how students in BC are coping with not being able to find housing. Some students use social networking as a key coping strategy when struggling to find a place to live, because using social media to help find housing is a common strategy, especially in today's day and age. Because it's easy, despite being unreliable and not completely secure, it's easy just to go on social media and look up places for rent. Students have also had to resort to relying on their families for financial support, as well as help for looking for places to stay and co-signing leases, which students can feel sort of ashamed or embarrassed for doing, and they also feel bad having to ask their families for help. Many students also have admitted to room sharing and overcrowding rooms with the goal to give as many peers a place to stay. This article also discussed consequences that students have been facing due to not being able to find housing. For one, they've been resorting to living in their cars, because it's either that or sleeping in the streets. Another consequence is them having to drop out of school altogether and give up on their hopes and dreams just because they can't find or afford housing, which is really heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking to hear, because everyone should have an opportunity at post-second education. The last consequence that this article discussed is that because students are spending most of their money on rent, they are not being able to afford basic needs for survival, such as food or health care, which are very important. In regards to acts of Canada, this social policy concern falls under the National Housing Act. Canada introduced the National Housing Act in 1985 with the purpose to promote affordable and access to housing to contribute to the well-being of the housing sector in the national economy. The National Housing Act declares that corporations may cooperate and make loans in respect of student housing and may forgive amounts owing on these loans with the approval of the government where the corresponding rental housing project is or will be located. And with the National Housing Act also comes the National Housing Strategy Act. This act was introduced by the Canadian government in 2017 in hopes to tackle the housing crisis. It has a goal to set out a long-term vision for housing in Canada that recognizes the importance of housing in achieving social, economic, health and environment goals. It also has set goals to focus on improving housing outcomes for people in great need, which as we've learned, students are in great need. The National Housing Strategy Act recognizes the right to housing under international human law as a fundamental human right in legislation. It also recognizes that housing is essential for the dignity and the well-being of a person and is working towards redesigning policies and programs to affect serious and transformative changes. The commitment of the National Housing Strategy Act strives to open the door for new rights-based housing laws and policies in Canada. Student housing has implications on social work practice for sure. And in regards to the Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, availability of student housing in BC falls under the second value, which is the pursuit of social justice. And according to the CASW, social workers believe in the obligation of people and providing the resources, services and opportunities for people in order to benefit them and protect them from any harm. Social workers also strive to promote fairness and equal distribution of resources while also aiming to reduce barriers and expand opportunities for people in order to live up to their best potential that will support their needs. And by using this value to inform my social policy concern, it proves that social workers uphold the right of people to have equal access to the resources to meet basic human needs, which housing obviously is a basic human need. It also values that everyone should have fair and equitable access to services and benefits as well as equal treatment and protection, especially for the vulnerable, which students are quite vulnerable mentally and financially. These values address the social policy concern because all students should have the right to equal access for housing and housing services, especially being that they are vulnerable. And this policy concern can be addressed by having social workers advocate for implementing policies for more student housing to be built and the funding from multiple layers of government so that it creates the more equitable access for all students that they need in finding housing. In hopes to one day give all students equal access to housing, there has been heavy planning and solutions made in order to solve this social policy concern. An expansion of affordable housing would obviously be the most effective and sustainable solution to the student housing crisis, but that is very much easier said than done. So there has been a solution proposed by the government of BC to help with the student housing crisis, which is the Homes for BC project. And this project was introduced in 2018 and it's basically a 10-year housing plan with the goal of building 8,000 new on-campus beds by the year 2028. The government of BC is investing in student housing through this project and through government loans and grants. Many student housing projects have actually been underway, which will provide students with more affordable housing options while students are pursuing university education and skilled training. But unfortunately, after the government had taken the time and reviewed these projects, they found that insufficient provincial investments into new homes in prior budgets mean that many of the buildings started by the previous government will actually not be very affordable for the students and British Columbians that they were supposed to help. And as a result, the government is committing more than $75 million over the next two years to address the cost pressures with a goal this time to make sure that the homes that have been built and are being built remain affordable. The Homes for BC project has also recognized that some landlords have taken advantage of the tight rental market and their actions have had serious impacts on people, especially students. This project has successfully ended the abuse of fixed-term leases and have eliminated the geographic rent increase point, both of which were being used to unfairly jack up rent prices. And they also increased the funding to the residential tenancy branch to reduce wait times, improve service, and deal with disputes more quickly to tenants having issues with their landlords. This project is definitely a step in the right direction because of the help of the greater government funding of on-campus rental housing, which was greatly needed, and also the improvement of the rent causes, you know, these will all substantially help out students who are struggling. Another possible solution for the student housing crisis issue is to have greater government funding for on-campus housing at universities. Even though some projects have been underway, they're not really keeping on top of it because we've never needed student housing more than right now. And obviously it's still a big issue. So the expansion of on-campus housing needs to start being a priority and need to be acted on a little quicker. In conclusion to this podcast, I hope you take away just how big of an issue student housing has been over the past few years and how much students are actually struggling in finding housing. You know, I hope this issue gets advocated for more and gets brought up more because it is affecting us as students. It's been affecting our friends and our classmates and is something that definitely should not be ignored or overlooked. So yes, that was my social policy podcast. Thank you so much for listening and I hope that you learned something and took something away from this podcast. So yeah, thank you and goodbye.