Finding affordable and reliable housing in Kamloops is harder for international students since the students leave their home countries for a country that is unknown and the support from the university is not enough. The housing crisis in Kamloops takes place since there are a lot of people living in the city and not enough houses available. 

Housing Crisis for International student are bordering students on their living conditions.

The university serves more than 25,000 students in the programs they offer, meanwhile, within the four residences TRU (Thompson Rivers University) has they can accommodate around 1,800 students. The residences are full until April 2023 causing issues with international students coming for the Winter semester at the beginning of January 2023. The residences offered by TRU are McGill Residence, North Tower, East Village, and the most recent one West Gate. All of them are located near the university and each of them has different features and layouts. 

North Tower, an on-campus residence option for TRU students

Each residence ranges from the cost, how many people it accommodates and the accommodations in each room, and the space you are sharing. In most residences, you must share your space with roommates. The only two residences that offer single occupancy are West Gate and the North Tower. In East Village, McGill Residence, and North Tower you share the apartment with at least two people, and it can accommodate up to four. Some residences have appliances like a stove, and fridge and which is a space either shared by roommates or people living on the same floor. The costs may vary, and here is a breakdown of the prices in three residences obtained from the TRU Residence website. 

  • East Village: From September 4th, 2022, to April 25th, 2022, a four-bedroom suite is 5,763 dollars which comes up to 720 dollars per month. 
  • North Tower: From September 4th, 2022, to April 25th, 2022, a one-bedroom suite is 9,080 dollars which comes up to 1,135 dollars per month.
  • McGill: From September 4th, 2022, to April 25th, 2022, a one-bedroom suite is 5,416 dollars which comes up to 677 dollars per month.
  • West Gate: From September 4th, 2022, to April 25th, 2022, a one-bedroom suite is 4,800 dollars which comes up to 600 dollars per month.

The West Gate dormitories opened in January 2022. At first, the dormitories were meant to be temporary until April 2023, however, the university may have other plans since there are not enough places available in Kamloops. According to Infotel, the City Council voted against the temporary residence on September 21, 2021, since it did not fulfill the requirements of B.C. Building Code. Even not the approval from the City Council the university built the residence in a parking lot. The bedrooms are small with limited space and look like a container dorm on the outside. A great majority of the students living there are international. 

Campus Residences are best choices but it is not enough for international students groups.

I am an international student from Ecuador, and I came to Kamloops in January of 2022. When you are going to an unknown place the safest option is to be close to campus and the residence seemed like the best option. When I applied all residences were full and had only waitlists available. The new residence advertised by TRU “West Gate”, was just opening and two weeks before traveling they accepted me. In January, the residence was not ready, so the university had to place all the students in hotels around town. This information was emailed to us two days before the moving-in date saying that we would stay there for two weeks. Those two weeks in the hotel turned into a month. Once I finally moved to West Gate the rooms were unfinished and everyone had to call maintenance. People working at the university were unhelpful just not answering emails or redirecting us to other sources. 

Krupa Gadhwana, an international student from India lives in a house with three rooms where each room is occupied by two people and her rent comes up to around 600 dollars each month with utilities included. Krupa is not the only student in this situation, many others must live in those conditions because the cost of living is so high. Her situation is not the only many other people live in spaces where there are four rooms but ten people are living there. It is hard to find a place that costs less than 600 dollars. Hotels and inns around the city have been serving as permanent places to live for students. For example, flyers of the Plaza Hotel are advertised around the university. There is not enough housing available for the number of students and other people that live in Kamloops.

Plaza Hotel is providing monthly rental for students.

Residences at TRU are not reliable either mostly because if you are on a waitlist, you find out if you get into the dorm at the last minute. The way to find a place to live in Kamloops mostly happens on the Facebook marketplace or Facebook groups. Affordable housing based on the prices in different platforms does not exist. As of November 2022, if anyone wants to live on their outside of campus, they will have to pay around 1500 dollars or even more based on the research done on platforms like Kijiji and Facebook.  Prices with roommates may range between 700 dollars and 1000 dollars. 

In an article by Kamloops This Week the comparison between the cost of living in Kamloops and Vancouver is highlighted. “The Vancouver rentals ranged from $1,400 to $3,300 per month, while the Kamloops rentals ranged from $1,000 to $3,000”. Vancouver is a significant city and Kamloops is small but still, the prices are almost the same. International student faces more difficulty since most of them have not lived in the country before and they might have a determined budget for their expenses. 

Limitation and high price of rental are giving international students pressure on solving living problems.

Another issue is that most rentals become available only one month before the moving date. Places near the university are even harder to find forcing many to commute to places further away. The university does not offer enough support for students referring them to other resources. The services provided by the university are not sufficient to fulfill the needs of the number of students it brings. In addition, the university is responsible for providing housing to students and new construction should have been done sooner with the crisis that happened. The structure of a new residency next to East Village has started but the university has not provided a date for when the project will be finished.