UCalgary grad students want Alberta to start pilot project to deal with housing crisis

University of Calgary graduate students are asking the province to look east to find a solution to the housing crisis.

By now, the stresses facing low-income Calgarians, including students, are well-known, as they face tough and often impossible situations.

Politicians and experts continue to fend off calls for rent control, saying traditional rent caps discourage owners from renting and can actually work against those who need help the most.

However, University of Calgary Graduate Students’ Association president James Steele says there’s “something there,” using Quebec as an example, where tenants can refuse rent increases if they can make a case.

“We looked at all of our friends doing school in Quebec and realized they’re not facing the same constraints we are,” he told CityNews.

“Grad students in Calgary have told me that they are facing up to 40 – 50 per cent rent increases. It just makes doing school in Calgary ridiculously unaffordable.”

Steele says the eastern province’s “soft rent cap” model is something the association is advocating for.

It put together a paper proposing the Alberta government use them as a pilot project.

The paper suggests Alberta tests out Quebec’s methods by using students — which would especially benefit from a trial over a short term, with many master’s and PhD students desperate to find decent housing.

“Well, we can’t really establish causality just yet, which is why we want to do a pilot program,” said Andrew Kemle, advocacy adviser with the Graduate Students’ Association.

“At least in Quebec, there has to be a number of reasons why Quebec’s rent is so much lower than the rest of the country.”

He says renters in Quebec have the right to make a case against a rent hike.

While experts say the best solution to the housing crisis is building more housing, students say they can’t afford to wait.