_ --SPECIAL ,

University of Waterloo, Waterlod; Ontario

volume 15, number 11 friday, august 30, 1974

Canvas tents eagerly await in the federation’s office tq settle the anticipated drove * of homeless students this fall. The photographer was randy hannigan.

Housing crisis x _

-Tent city, being erected:- Ic Students may well wind up

living in tents erected on campus by the Federation of Students for the first few, weeks of classes as there is a severe housing shortage in the Kit- chener-Waterloo area this fat!. The federation unanimously ’ passed a motion funding “tent city” to the tune of $3,500 after a long drawn out students’ council meeting last Wed- nesday.

reminding other students of it ‘and the resulting - awareness “could bring students together to pressure the- administration to do something”. Harding also urged council to “mobilize for a tent city now or else betray, the students we represent .‘L U n.moved by Harding’s emotional plea engineering councillor Eric Pugh said “tent city might condone the very housing we

now find substandaid” for It is little more than “clapping one big -tent with a lotta people” somewhat like the 1968 Woodstock festival which was notorious for being a m_ess.

Pugh’s remarks saying “we will house only those people we believe will not have anywhere to stay and the idea is not just to have a big splash in the newspapers.”

rejected because it was pointed one encounters _ certain behaviour restrictions imposed upon by the landl,ord which are “against no law”, Vinnicombe said.

According to chief “tent -city organizer John Shortall there could be as many as 500 students in d.ire need of ac- commodation who might take part in the federation project which is expected to last two weeks. Shortall also said there might be a conflict with the university administration as president Burt Matthews noted his disapproval of “anything of this sort” at a meeting last week. f

Publications .dhairman Terry Harding when introducing the

* motion to fund the project said “pressure works” when applied

- in such a manner as “tent city” for it brings the housing problem out in the open thus

Pugh felts on the one hand “tent city” might be “one big bash” while on the other it “might do the -Federation of Students some harm’.‘. He also asked whether the campus security will be approached to police the event and Xill holding council’s.rapt attention

‘he said the “tent city” scheme is “trying to benefit from somebody else’s plight and to make it into a desperation play”.

Shortall strongly objected to

Federation president Andy Telegdi said “we- are trying to do the best-we can for students by making the housing problem very much apparent”. The idea is “to keep this in the public eye” he said.

Engineering representative Max Mercer felt there should be a charge for those students using tent facilities on a nightly basis and he suggested the charge to be $1.50 per night.

Rounding up the pro- “tent

Mercer’s suggestion was

city” chorus, Harding reminded council once again of the need for a “confrontation stance in order to pressure the ad- ministration into doing something” and he cited student radicalism of past years as proof of his con- tention. “We need to take- the housing issue to the board of governors and make them pressure Matth-ews into doing something” he said.

out to council by Harding that “a dollar fifty a night for seven days is very close to the price students, have to pay now for low quality- housing”. In essence he said the federation would be taking undue ad- vantage of students in a desperate situation.

Other counc’illors also felt that to charge a price for the tent facilities would reduce the number of participants in the event.

Vinnicombe listed what he called the “inadequacies” one finds in-the off camps rooms; some places -the resident is only allowed “one bath a week” while in others the resident can “never take .a bath”. Frequently

Earlier on, university housing direcor Cal Vin- nicombe <entertained council with the various facts and figures of student housing. He said there w,ere in the past few weeks fifty stude.nts per day looking for off campus rooms in the central housing office, and during the next week he expected 100 to 200 students “who will have a problem.”

The housing office always sends to incoming freshmen brochures emphasizing the short supply of adequate , housing in the community, but “students god bless them never read a goddam thing we send them” Vinnicombe stated;

tie also pointed out that as -of Wednesday there were only 88 beds available which he suspected were too “sub- standard” for anyone to want. Rita Schneider and Sandy McDonald, members of the federation funded “Housing ‘74 summer project,_both informed council that last weekend there were 712 students looking for housing i-n the federation off ice, and “today (Wednesday) there were forty”.

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“Housing ‘74”. apart from , - staffing an information desk on available accommodation, has conducted several surveys on the policy of various apart- ments with regards to renting to students. . -john morris

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Sub standard, Housing

native is no housing at all; the sub- standard rooms begin to look fairly reasonable. Students are ,finding more and more attics and basements being ’ converted into rooms, as homeowners are assured of renting them to students regardless of the condition. At the same time, there seems to be fewer of the better rooms available for a variety of reasons, including mortgages being paid off and income tax hassles. -

lhoushg

The annual housing shortage that arises each fall as students return to campus, has lead to an increased number of sub-standard rooms being offered to students.

Accommodation can be classified as substandard for many reasons. The three most common complaints are regarding the bhysical condition of the rooms, the lack of privileges, such as taking more than one bath a week, or being allowed to smoke etc. and the high cost to rent these rooms.

_ Although the University of Waterloo administration housing office does nothing to rate’ the rooms as sub- standard or otherwise, Wilfred Laurier offers the following list of furnishings as a minimum standard for off campus accommodation: 1 bed per student 1 study table or desk per student 1 straight back chair per student 1 desk lamp per student a metal waste basket

-, mirror ample drawer and closet space _ a bookcase or bookshelves .

Although it is possible to a certain extent to regulate what physical objects

-, constitute a minimum standard of off campus housing, it is very difficult to regulate what rules and regulations that a home owner may apply to the student. .The homeowner can legally set whatever standard/of behavior he wants on the tenants that he leases rooms to. For instance, rules such as no visitors, only one bath a week, no smoking and numerous others are within the rights of the landlord to set as’conditions of

- leasing the rooms. Therefore, it is up to the student to make sure that he or she knows what those restrictions are beforda deposit is paid or an agreement signed. It is fairly obvious though, that a student faced with a choice between no housing or accepting the restrictions

‘put on by the. landlord will end uf~ accepting the restrictions. The same argument applies to the overpriced and substandard rooms, when the alter-

Although there will probably always ‘be students who will live in sub- standard housing accommodations, the problem can only be solved if more adequate housing is made available to students. In this way students could refuse rooms or accommodation which _ , was unacceptable.

The administration has clearly in- dicated that it is not going to be held responsible for the housing shortage, since it has no legal oblication to provide the student with housing. Although some persons in the ad- ministration have expressed concern over the fact that while the university is drawing students to the city, it is doing nothin to help alleviate the housing shortage. Due to this unconcerned attitude of the administration,. the Federation of Students has had to come up with someshort term solutions.

One of these\ solutions involves renting aprtment blocks from the apartment owners and then sub letting them to students. According to a spokesman for the Waterloo Regional

+%part.ment Owners Association, this is the$only way that many vacant apart- ments will be opened up to students. The association would have preferred the administration to guarantee rents and damages, but has indicated that it would accept the Federation as guarantors for the students. The actual mechanics of renting these blocks and then subletting them need to be worked out and therefore it is felt that this solution will only happen towards the end of September. A tent city has-is being erected in order that students will

‘have some place to stay until these apartment units become available. ’

The Federation of Students is urging all students who do not have housing to, refuse any sub standard ac-- commodations and to stay in the tents until the apartments are available. For the location of the tents or for more information -on the housing situation please contact 1 the Federation of Students housing office located in the federation offices in the campus center. The officeis open from 9: 00 am to 9: 00 pm monday to friday and 8: 00 am to 10: 00 pm on weekends and holidays.

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‘member: Canadian university press (CUP). The chevron is typeset by dumont press graphix and published by the federation of students in- corporated, university of water-loo. Content is the sole responsibility of the chevron editorial staff. Offices are located in the campus centre; (519) 885-1660, or univer&ty local 2331.

This special issue was brought to you by john morris, andrew telegdi and randy hannigan, with a little help from our council members. The emergency council meeting held Wednesday evening had to set a record for the most number of amendments to the amendments that amended the previous’amendment ad infinitum. However \?re hope that this issue will emphasize the fact that some action has to be taken to alleviate the housing crisis. nrh.

#XTRA 1 l large me and two. bodrooph apartmenfs. All utlllties Included. I

I. Cbntral Kitchener. No students. Cali 9’ 576-8787. I dve31 ;

Most apartment haye vacancies but not for students. Unless there is a sudden change in the attitude of landlords towards students the 7.7 vacancy rate Fyi/l remain. Some apartment owners saidklakm that it is more economical to leave the apartments and use it as a tax write off rather than renting them to students.

I. Tent city is I/

For more information, location etc., -please contact the feder’ation of ,

. students housing, office located in the federatioti offices in the campus center. . hours : 9 : Ooam to 9 : OOpm weekdays

8:OOam to 1O:OOpm weekends and holidays

phone ext 2405 / or 885-0370 /

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