Halifax university students scramble to find a place to live as in-person classes resume

HALIFAX -

University students are returning to Halifax to resume in-person classes for the first time since 2019, but many of them don't have a place to stay.

Some have resorted to renting hotel rooms until they can find something permanent.

Adele Arsenault has secured an apartment with some friends, but she considers herself lucky.

"There aren’t many options with pricing," says the fourth-year Dalhousie University student.

"You kind of just get what you get, it doesn’t matter how close you are to the university. I know a lot of people in my program and on my soccer team that are still scrambling to find spaces," Arsenault says.

Dalhousie University is only allowing first-year students in residence and, because of COVID-19, they have a no-roommate policy.

Because of their age, the vice president of the student union says finding an apartment is difficult.

"First-year students have faced very, very specific hurdles in terms of them being too young to sign leases, lease agreements," says Mazen Brisha.

Brisha says some have had to move into hotels until they can find something more permanent.

"Quite a few students that I personally know have resorted to staying in hotels for at least the first few weeks of the upcoming year," says Brisha.

Second-year student Dylan Keefe isn't one of them. Last year he was in residence but knew that finding a place off-campus this year would be a struggle so he began networking halfway through the year.

"Probably halfway through last year, so right after first semester I started looking," Keefe says.

A move that paid off, he's just a block from campus, making Keefe one of the lucky ones.