Housing Crisis: Students Speak Out
As of 7 August, St Andrews’ Campaign for Affordable Student Housing (C.A.S.H) claimed to have been contacted by 350 students who declared themselves homeless for the upcoming academic year.
Duncan, a fourth-year student, spoke on his experience with his search. “We started looking in February when most housing is released, and held off applying to houses above our budget of £650 ppm each. I expected more to pop up after the Open but there was still next to nothing available, so we started applying pretty frantically to Dundee, and to the Old Mill accommodation, which I was put on a waiting list for. In late August, with many many applications made and scams dodged, we managed to secure a flat near the bus station in Dundee for £700 each, bills not included, by some miracle being first to enquire, view and apply out of over 40 applicants.”
On top of the high cost of renting, Duncan expressed that the accommodation is inappropriate for student living. “Our flat is not suitable for students, with no desks in rooms etc, and is over our budget, but we are forced to take it with no alternative”.
Some students are currently on their semesters abroad and are concerned about finding a place to live when they return. Iona, a third-year student, said: “I’ve been looking for a place to live for semester 2 of third year since around February (though not very intensely) and then with a lot more intensity around April time.”
With regards to where she is looking, she said: “I’ve mainly been looking around the St Andrews area as I don’t think I could personally sustain good work habits or even friendships if I was commuting from somewhere as far as Dundee every day.”
Iona also spoke on the issue of cost. “I actually found someone to swap places with early on (I’m studying abroad first semester, and they were studying abroad in second semester), but had to turn down the offer because of how expensive the rent would be. Rent prices have been quite an issue, because my maintenance loan doesn’t cover the cost of rent for any of the places I’ve been able to find. Even then, I’ve not been able to get any offers since the first one I had to turn down (and that was only because the person I had to swap with knew the landlord personally!)”
The highest maintenance loan a Scottish student can receive as part of the SAAS funding is £8,100 a year, which works out at £675 a month. The average rent in St Andrews is £760 a month according to a study conducted by Arora Medical Education.
Elle Glenny, a spokesperson for Scotland’s tenants’ union Living Rent, said the current shortage was “the result of a housing market that prioritises the profit of landlords over tenants’ need for a home”.
She added: “Landlords are hiking up rents far beyond affordable levels, forcing tenants out of their homes and communities, only to convert the would-be homes into more profitable holiday lets.”
C.A.S.H, alongside Amnesty St Andrews had planned for a housing march on 11 September to demand action on the crisis. This march was postponed following the Queen’s death on 8 September. A public ceremony taking place to pay respects took place on the same day.
Regarding the postponement of the march, C.A.S.H and Amnesty St Andrews wrote in their social media post: “The events of the last 24 hours do not reduce the impact or severity of the housing crisis and we are still in need of urgent solutions. We plan to use these next days to organise for an even larger demonstration and look forward to seeing you all there”.
The rescheduling of the march is intended for Sunday 25 September, although permits have meant the organisation of the march has been difficult.
C.A.S.H described the aims of the march as follows: “By marching, we hope to raise attention about the housing crisis with the wider local community and show the University that we won't stand by as ourselves and our friends go without a home or struggle with unaffordable rent. We want to show a public display of our disapproval at the inaction on the housing crisis from the University and Fife Council. Our petition contains the demands that we know will bring a resolution to the housing crisis, it's now time to take to the streets to show we want those demands set in stone.”
In terms of the University’s response to the crisis, C.A.S.H is critical.
“The University has not been receptive to our campaigning efforts and has always directed us to elected student representatives. In the last year, we have collected an enormous amount of information on how the housing crisis impacts students through our many surveys and reports. We are in a better position than any other campaign in town to advocate for students on housing matters, it is unreasonable that the University locks us out of discussions if they are truly committed to providing solutions that work in students' interests.
“Our elected members of parliament have raised this as an issue and have asked that the University speak to us as they recognise the need, however we have still not had the University reach out to us. We continue to share all the data and information we have with them in the hope they use it to understand how the crisis is affecting students. If the University was truly committed to providing solutions that effectively represent student concerns, then they would communicate with C.A.S.H to find ways to provide this.
“When the housing crisis is affecting everyone, we need as many voices at the table as we can get. We have an Environmental Sustainability Board to collect student voices on the climate crisis. Representatives in halls collect student voices and bring them to the Board. It's not unreasonable to demand the same for accommodation, and the University refusing to speak to us directly is representative of their reluctance to provide accommodation options that work in students' interests.”
According to a survey carried out by C.A.S.H, the majority of students have been dissatisfied with the University’s response to the crisis.
“Almost 100% of students (97.5%) we have surveyed have said they are dissatisfied with the response of the University so far, with 52.5% 'Very Dissatisfied'. 87.2% of students are dissatisfied with the communication from the University so far, with 51.5% are 'Very Dissatisfied'. The data tells us that students are far from happy with the solutions and communication from the University in the last months, and so clearly there is opportunity for the University to do better.
“Other things I'd add is that the University has so far proposed no solution that will stop this from happening again. We have no word on increases in student bedrooms, we have no update on their lobbying attempts to remove the HMO (which C.A.S.H has been doing independently), and we have been told in a meeting with Sally Mapstone in May that the University will not consider decreasing student numbers.
“From our perspective, I'd say this. We know the solutions that will work to top this from happening again, and they are included within our petition. If the University and Fife Council won't give them to us, then we have to fight for them. C.A.S.H will be holding a series of actions this semester to contribute to that fight, including a rally through town and protests at Fife Council's offices, and we hope everyone can join us.”
In response, to C.A.S.H.'s claims, the University stated: "As of 16th September, all undergraduate returners who had applied to the university for accommodation or assistance have been accommodated. We currently have no undergraduate students on any housing waiting lists. We have 3 postgraduate students who we are working with to secure accommodation."
The University has also refuted the claims made by C.A.S.H. The University states: "C.A.S.H (Campaign for Affordable Student Housing), have persistently made false claims about the extent of the housing squeeze in St Andrews. The figure of 350 'homeless' students in St Andrews is without foundation."
The University commented: "There is a limit to what we can do for individual students if they do not apply for accommodation, or indeed get in touch with us to find out how we may be able to help."
For many students, the process of looking for housing has been exhausting and fruitless for a long period of time. According to C.A.S.H, 85.4. per cent of students affected by the student homelessness crisis this semester have said that the entire situation has had a significant negative impact on their mental health.
Amelia, a third-year student, said: “Trying to find a house for two people last year was next to impossible. We applied to every single one that we saw, but there was so much competition. It meant that we were still looking for houses by the time we both had left St Andrews, which again made everything so difficult trying to co-ordinate between the two of us, as well as prospective landlords. It was really frustrating because we would get an interview for a house, and then hear nothing back… the letting agencies definitely exploit the issue and don’t make it easy for people applying.”
Many students have found themselves living outside of St Andrews. Michael, a second year student, lives in a bungalow about three miles from town, on the road towards Crail. The bungalow is part of a large farmstead.
Michael explained that his search was a long process.
“I’ve been actively looking for property since the very beginning of Candlemas semester- in January 2022. I enjoyed my time in halls but found the mealtimes restrictive, and having shared rooms in my first year, I found it difficult to accommodate the total lack of personal space. Since then I received between ten and fifteen rejections from various letting agents before finally stumbling onto this property about three weeks prior to the start of the semester.”
Whilst he initially reapplied to halls, Michael continued to look elsewhere and then found his opportunity to live in halls during his second year had disappeared.
“I reapplied initially to halls, but due to the very short window to accept an application, as well as finding a property which seemed very interested in me as a potential tenant in the centre of town, I did not accept the offer. Unfortunately, the tenancy fell through due to unspecified reasons, and my second reapplication to halls was quickly rejected. There I learnt an important lesson: the property you want isn’t yours until you’ve signed on the dotted line.”
The concern regarding living outside of St Andrews goes further than the effects on a student’s social life, but includes issues such as travel. Michael commented:
“I’m not a massive partygoer, so I don’t often feel that I’m missing that much from a social point of view. I do worry about my finances a lot more than I think is fair; the only way for me to get myself into town at the moment is by car (by time of writing, the buses aren’t running to where I live, which is on the road to Crail), and it seems when the buses start running, they will be far less regular than the ones going up to Dundee, and will definitely stop at night (so a night out any time soon doesn’t seem like an option for me). So, this runs up a huge bill for me in terms of petrol costs, and it’s not as if St Andrews is an easy place to park/drive around.”
According to Michael, the University’s response has been insufficient. “The University has been frustrating in its response to my concerns about transport. I am still unable to obtain a driving permit, despite two emails on that matter to the relevant people, and when I expressed concern over my finances due to the buses not running, the ASC directed me to a site I could easily have found online.”
He added: “What particularly frustrates me is that the University seems to do a lot for people living slightly out of the way (in DRA, for example), but seems to do nothing for those of us who have been forced into living out of town.”
In their statement on 4 August, the University said: “St Andrews students living in Dundee will be reimbursed for the cost of a bus pass, if you are not eligible for the Young Scot card.”
However, Duncan said: “We read that the university would subsidise bus travel for those ineligible for young scot cards, however we've now been told that this will only be offered to students in halls.”
Michael also expressed his exasperation on HMO laws in Scotland. “In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been to three ‘two-person’ student flats in St Andrews whose landlords have boarded up the third room due to the frustrating, needless, and confusing HMO laws in Scotland. Personally, I don’t think there is a lack of rooms in St Andrews, but this legal flaw has inconvenienced a lot of people, myself included.”
The University gave the following statement on the matter of housing in St Andrews:
"We sympathise greatly with the stress students have reported flat hunting in a housing environment that is more highly pressured than ever. In St Andrews this year this is related to a wider lack of properties available in the rental market for reasons entirely beyond the University’s control. Several of these factors are common to universities across the country."
"We will continue to work on accommodation challenges in the year ahead, recognising the stress students can encounter, and lobbying for changes to local and national policies which impact housing provision here and elsewhere in Scotland.
"All our undergraduate entrant students have been offered accommodation, in line with St Andrews’ longstanding guarantee.
"Our residences team has worked enormously hard to support and help offer accommodation to students who told us at the start of August that they’d been unable to find a place. As of 16 September, there are no undergraduate students on our waiting lists for university accommodation."
"The Halls Life programme in Dundee is helping to build a strong community with inclusive events and activities for students, which is receiving very positive feedback. We will always work with our students directly and house any in St Andrews as and when property becomes available throughout the year if they wish to relocate.
"A range of external factors beyond the University’s control have impacted the private accommodation sector in St Andrews.
A cap on the numbers of Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) in St Andrews, imposed by the local authority Fife Council, has led to private landlords shutting off bedrooms in flats and houses for rent in town to avoid coming under HMO licensing arrangements. It is estimated there are over 200 bedrooms currently unoccupied as a result of this regulation. The University strongly opposed the introduction of the cap, and continues to lobby for a review.
Changes to the law in Scotland which put more power in the hands of tenants have led to increasing numbers of private landlords choosing to let their properties via the Air BnB market, rather than rent to students.
The hosting of The Open Championship in St Andrews this year has led to increased visitor and tourist numbers, which have consequently put more pressure on private lets in North East Fife.
Like universities across the UK, St Andrews was affected by the decision of the UK and Scottish Governments in 2020 and 2021 to award A-Level and Higher exam results by teacher-assessed grades. This led to much larger numbers of students than expected meeting their conditional offers, which universities were legally obliged to honour. Universities and students across Scotland and the UK are facing the same accommodation challenges."
The Saint wishes to amend certain points which were made in the print edition of this article:
We wrote that the Old Mill Residence was built by the University of St Andrews. As a correction, the Old Mill Residence was not built by the University of St Andrews. The University has leased rooms in St Andrews-specific blocks of an existing, purpose-built student residence in Dundee.
We wrote: 'As of 7 August, 390 students had contacted St Andrews’ Campaign for Affordable Student Housing (C.A.S.H) to declare themselves homeless for the upcoming academic year.' The University states that C.A.S.H have "persistently made false claims about the extent of the housing squeeze in St Andrews. The figure of 350 'homeless' students in St Andrews is without foundation."
The print edition wrote that 'students are still seeking suitable accommodation'. The University states: "As of 16th September, all undergraduate returners who had applied to the university for accommodation or assistance have been accommodated. We currently have no undergraduate students on any housing waiting lists. We have 3 postgraduate students who we are working with to secure accommodation"
Illustration: Lauren McAndrew