Students forced to live rough      

Date
    January 8, 2014


Students are finding it tough to find somewhere to live.

Unprecedented accommodation guarantees, higher vacancy rates and lower rental prices are cold comfort for low-income university students heading for Canberra this year.

Welfare and student associations say many will live on a diet of two-minute noodles and sleep in cars or inshifts in single rooms shared with mates.         

The University of Canberra has increased student accommodation by 60 per cent over the last five years.

Next week it opens the eight-storey Cooper Lodge with 416 beds, taking the total to 2400 beds.


The university has dropped rents 5 per cent lower than the government-funded National Rental Affordability Scheme which is 20 per cent lower than market rents.

For the first time the university is guaranteeing all first-year students accommodation. International students are guaranteed accommodation for as long as they are at the university.

Off campus, 3000 rental properties are on the market, nearly double the number from 18 months ago, says the Independent Property Group, when 1600 properties were on the rental market.

RPdata says median advertised rental prices in the ACT for three-bedroom homes and two- and one-bedroom units have dropped between 4.2per cent and 6.8 per cent over the past year.

Yet a turnaround in rental accommodation that has landlords looking for tenants, won’t take pressure off low-income students.      

University of Canberra Students Association, one of several managers of university-owned accommodation, has an operating deficit because it struggles to meet  costs.

President Jacob White said Centrelink student allowance of $124 a fortnight didn’t cover a quarter of accommodation costs.      

‘‘We’ve had students from Griffith, Wagga, Junee and Tumut sleeping in their cars, from Batemans Bay as well, living in parks, in tents.

‘‘We can’t compete with the likes of UniLodge, the bulk of their students are from Asian countries whose parents pay the full year upfront. Domestic students can’t compete with that.’’

‘‘It’s a bit of a joke. The National Rental Affordability Scheme pumps a huge chunk of taxpayer money into this and it still doesn’t come close to affordable.’’  

ACT Shelter spokeswoman Leigh Watson said cases of students sleeping in public spaces, such as libraries and computer rooms, around campuses,  on couches, squatting, skipping meals or taking up prostitution, had been documented.

University of Canberra acting vice-chancellor Professor Nick Klomp, commenting on the pending opening of  Cooper Lodge, said: ‘‘We provide accommodation 25per cent below market rates. It’s still expensive in Canberra, I know that, but at least it helps.

Australian National University has nearly 5000 beds on campus and guarantees accommodation for new full-time undergraduate students from outside the Canberra region.

This year ANU has also guaranteed up to 120 accommodation spaces to students from the ACT.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/students-forced-to-live-rough-20140108-30i2r.html#ixzz2pr50wxtT

Haven't any of these students watched Bear Grylls, all he needs is a knife and a flintstone.

It's always been hard for students to afford to eat. I know I couldn't, but somehow, I always managed to afford to drink. 

Quote:


I suspect this figure might be the living at home rate, thus they don't need to pay for accommodation.  Away from home rate + rent assistance delivers about 4x this amount.  It's still hard, but it's not the impossible the scenario he makes it out to be.

We know it is hard, Jacob White, but please don't bullshit us.

Away from home rate + rent assistance delivers about 4x this amount.

You serious? $496? I don't think the age pension is this much.
I'm going back to college & do a PhD in stock market rorts.

As 2 Minute noodles are carbohydrate ... you can actually put on weight eating them.

Anyways nothing wrong em .... add a can of smoked tuna or salmon .....

might cost you $2.50 .... cheap & good for ya.

Kat wrote on Jan 9^th, 2014 at 4:26pm:

If you're eating cat meat, it's very similar to rabbit. It's why cat meat is also known as "roof rabbit". Once the head, tail and paws are cut off, it's very hard to tell the difference between a cat and rabbit carcass. Hint - to tell the difference, look at the scapula.

Road kill can be another good source of protein if you're fortunate enough to have a car (most likely because you have chosen to live in a car). Kangaroos are especially useful. If you find a dead one with a live joey, make sure the joey is rescued by an animal welfare service, but the dead mother will most likely be recently killed and so still edible. Don't eat koalas, they eat eucalyptus leaves and that's what they taste like.

Better watch out for the current generation of students. They would just totally own the sheltered white-bread overpaid and overfed suburbanites in a post-apocalyptic world.

Gnads wrote on Jan 10^th, 2014 at 3:02pm:



And tasty.

This is good advice.

I used to give blood just to get a few sandwiches and pasties afterwards.

In a double-dose of value, I could get smashed off 2 pints afterwards, thanks to my reduced blood volume.