Racing With Time: How The Housing Crisis is Affecting Students

By Hazel Preda

“Should I say: ‘myself and three female students are looking for a house’?... Is it weird to say female, though? It sounds like I’m selling puppies or something.”

“No. You need to say female. Say non-smoking females as well, and say we're in final year.”

Galway city is bursting at the seams. There are an abundance of students who are undertaking tiresome commutes, as well as hopping from house to house and staying on friends’ couches. Suddenly: ‘stay for as long as you need’ turns into: ‘have you found anything yet?’.

Whenever the issue is brought up, almost everybody knows someone in this situation, and it becomes apparent just how bad the crisis has become. Galway is trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans they bought when they were twelve, when all they should really do is buy some bigger ones.

People who have been on the accommodation hunt for months still haven’t found anything, and if something does become available, their chances of attaining it are incredibly low. Due to the sheer amount of potential tenants attending viewings and contacting landlords with their first month’s rent and deposit at hand, there is a sense of hopelessness in ever finding somewhere to live. The competition is fierce, and for landlords, students are not always the most desirable candidates for tenancy.

So, where do we go?

Students have resorted to commuting, which not only affects their lives academically but also socially, having an impact on their entire college experience:

“I try to work on the train, but some days I’m just too exhausted. And if I do work on the train, I’m far too tired to do any more when I get home.”

For a generation of students who have lived through a difficult period of online learning during Covid, where most were completely isolated from their friends and social lives, the housing crisis is just the next thing preventing us from having a bit of craic during our time at university:

“My whole college experience, like so many, has been completely ruined by Covid. And, as my first and final full year being able to go to college on campus, I still do not have the full college experience, which is really disheartening and disappointing. Yes, I’m very lucky that I’m still here and have made it this far in my degree, but it's just sad at the end of the day”.

The Westwood student accommodation is the latest block of apartments that have been built, in an attempt to create more options for Galway students. However, only a select few can afford a room here, leaving us questioning who these accommodation companies are prioritising, because it is not the average student. We do not need a private gym or a cinema room, as advertised by Westwood accommodation, we need a basic and functional place to live that we can afford:

“The thought from new student accommodation buildings is that it needs to be high tech and fancy, which they are then asking for a higher price. This is not going to help the problem at all. We need standard, fit for purpose, safe and warm places to live that are affordable for any student”.

Travelling long distances every day has students feeling like they are racing with time. A final year University of Galway student, says she is “constantly on the clock” when she is commuting. Unable to get a train early enough to make her 9 AM lectures, she has no choice but to stay in a B&B every Monday night, which she says is “quite costly”.

“I feel like I’m never settled because I’m always getting up and going.”

Staying with friends is not a long term solution either. It not only impacts students who are sacrificing their living space, it puts them at risk of conflict with landlords for squeezing another person into a houseshare. It is not a sustainable living situation for either party.

The housing crisis is affecting people all over the country, and officials must start listening to us.

We need new jeans, we don’t need to lose weight.