The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) has marked the start of construction of 470 new dorm rooms with high hopes that the development will offer students support and more beds amid B.C.’s housing crisis.
“Housing is a problem for everybody, and, in many respects, particularly for students coming out of the Lower Mainland,” Paul McCullough, BCIT's interim president, told the Burnaby NOW.
Not only are domestic students struggling with the province's high rent and competitive market, but international students, who are enrolling in B.C.s post-secondary schools at increasing rates, face similar problems.
“Students need housing,” said Selina Robinson, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, who, along with McCullough, spoke at the celebration to mark the beginning of work on the project on April 14. “It’s so hard for them to find housing that is appropriate, that is safe and that is affordable for them.”
BCIT is one of eight post-secondary institutions in B.C. with on-campus housing. When completed, the project will add 470 new beds, bringing the campus total to 770. The development is the first student housing built on BCIT’s campus in 40 years, and is expected to be completed by 2025.
The B.C. government will pay $108.5 million toward the $119.7 million cost of the new building. This is part of the provincial governments’ long-term plan to build 12,000 more beds on post-secondary campuses, which it says will help relieve pressure on students and free up room in the private market for other renters.
A built-in support system
Shian Corbeil, a financial planning diploma student at BCIT, spoke at the event about coming from Vancouver Island to live on campus.
“I have experienced the benefits of a built-in support system and community,” Corbeil said about dorm life.
The new dorms will “create more of a vibrant life," McCullough said.“You’d get more of the natural supports by having other students around you as opposed to being on your own in the community.”
He sees this as a positive solution for students living on their own for the first time.
“It is pretty intimidating, if you’ve lived at home all your life, to suddenly be out on your own, in a community, living in a basement suite somewhere where there’s no other students around you.”
The 12-storey mass-timber building will have studio suites, private rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens, study rooms and common areas. It is to be designed to reflect cultures Indigenous to the region — Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Watuth Nation.
