NYE SPECIAL EDITION

🎩 2024 Year In Review

✍️ Our 2025 Resolutions

🧩 More from Studenthaus

🗂 Rental resources

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🪩 2024 Year In Review

2024 brought us new policies, proposed student housing, and lots of swings for the fences, yet despite a few bright spots, we finish the year in a similar place to where we started.

January

❄️ Canada’s housing agency releases their 2024 rental market report, highlighting record rent growth and vacancy rates (read)

💰 Feds offer low cost loans for student housing (read)

February

✈️ UBC student Tim Chen goes viral for commuting from Calgary to Vancouver to avoid paying rent (read)

🏗️ BC Builds is launched by the BC Government (read)

March

📸 BCBusiness recognizes us in 30 Under 30 for our impact (read)

🔬 SHI 2024 Outlook research begins

April

🌷Federal Budget 2024 unveils a new housing plan (read)

May

📌 BC’s controversial Airbnb policy goes into effect to return thousands of units to the long-term rental market (read)

June

📒 We publish our Student Housing Initiative 2024 Outlook, highlighting student challenges and ideal next steps (read)

July

🎈 SFU announces new on-campus housing (read)

🎥 Homes Don’t Just Happen simplifies how housing gets built (watch)

August

🥏 UBC announces new on-campus housing (read)

🏙️ Ontario releases new Provincial Planning Statement to guide future housing creation (read)

September

🔨 We begin working with the private sector to include young voices in new housing projects

🎓 Desjardins publishes a report that includes our research and notes 1 in 10 students live on-campus (read)

📈 Toronto shares strong progress on annual housing targets (read)

October

🚦 Slight positive impact to housing from immigration changes (read)

💸 $1.7b acquisition creates largest private student housing entity in Canada (read)

November

🏢 New student housing in Guelph (read), Calgary (read)

🏛️ NDP win BC majority (read), Conservatives win NS majority (read)

💵 City of Vaughan lauded for slashing development charges (read)

December

✏️ We begin working with the public sector to include young voices in new housing policies

🌳 New Toronto Chief Planner selected (read)

🏠 New Federal Housing Minister appointed (read)

✍️ Our 2025 Resolutions

🗳️ Pushing for an end to youth housing inequality

Young Canadians are being asked to sacrifice their standard of living to protect our country’s political bargain. With pivotal upcoming elections, we see an opportunity to advocate for change. Want to help us show political leaders that youth deserve compensation for this sacrifice? Reply to this email.

🏛️ Keep working with the public sector to get youth a seat at the table

Canada’s housing process skews heavily towards feedback from privileged members of the community, shutting out the next generation. As we transition towards building future-proof cities that will thrive for years to come, it’s critical that young voices get a seat in policy discussions.

🏗️ Bring youth perspective into new private sector housing projects

Canada needs to build 3 million new homes by 2030 to reach affordability, according to CMHC. As we progress towards this goal, housing must be designed with the next generation of renters and homeowners at the table. We will focus on projects most relevant to youth — student housing, purpose-built rentals, social housing, and masterplanned communities.

🎥 Tell stories of young renters across the country

We’ve spent the last two years researching how young people make housing decisions. In the process, we’ve heard countless stories about the challenges youth face in the housing market. Your experiences are just as important as data when trying to affect change. This year, we’ll start to tell your stories.

🧩 More from Studenthaus

🗂 Rental resources

Whether it’s your first time living on your own or you’ve been renting for years, this is the time of year that lots of young people are starting to think about their housing plans, which could involve looking for new housing.

Is your landlord illegally entering your unit, trying to change your agreement without your consent, or unreasonably preventing you from having overnight guests?

If so, and you can’t quite figure out how to word a message to your landlord, check out the list of template letters from BC’s Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre to help you out.

There’s even a template roommate agreement.

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