The 132 students still living in emergency housing in the new Proxima building on the Zernike Campus have to vacate their rooms by November 29. Rental agency SSH should be more flexible, they feel.
‘I didn’t think it would be that difficult to find another room’, says Alan (21), who is doing his master’s degree in finance. ‘I talked to a real estate agent and they told me that August is really difficult, but it would be easier later in the year. But it hasn’t changed.’
Meanwhile, the temporary arrangement in Proxima – which allowed students to move into a room with a permanent tenant for a few months – is about to end. Although the new emergency facility lessened the stress for internationals at the very beginning of the year, the burden of finding housing alongside studying is now causing a lot of anxiety for the remaining students.
‘It’s definitely on my mind every day. It’s just this ongoing stress that you have to live with’, says Alan. ‘And it’s getting worse and worse as the end date is closing in.’
Inflexible
For many students, the perceived lack of flexibility from SSH is increasing their frustration. Tenants are not allowed to have more than one short-stay contract with the student housing agency, meaning there is no possibility to extend their time at Proxima.
In addition, students report receiving mixed messages about whether or not moving into other empty SSH rooms is possible. ‘I find it very confusing where they stand and what is allowed and what is not’, says Nicola Więcław (23), who is doing her master in Middle Eastern studies. ‘It would be nice to have support from the university.’
Double rent
The one-month notice period before leaving a contract is particularly annoying, Nicola feels, as it leaves tenants often needing to pay a month of double rent should they find a permanent accommodation. ‘I just find it ridiculous,’ says Nicola. ‘It’s emergency housing. You should be able to take any accommodation that comes at you, but instead you have to give such a long notice.’
Whether that will change, a spokesperson for SSH couldn’t say. ‘We are going to evaluate the emergency housing with the municipality and the educational institutions in the upcoming months to find out if we need to change something about our services.’