Montreal students cramming into small apartments, or living far from school, to save money

Mandy Lokko’s living situation is far from ideal, and it risks putting a strain on her studies.

The McGill university PhD student has a 40-minute commute to class because the only affordable housing she could find was in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie.

The only other option, as she contended with rising living expenses, was to live closer to the university – but with roommates. It’s not something she wanted to entertain.

“This is the best I could get for the money that I have,” Lokko told CityNews. “Basically everything is in here. I barely have space for anything.”

Lokko first came to Montreal in 2019 as a Master’s student. In just a few years she’s seen costs – from rent to food – skyrocket.

“There are so many opportunities here, but it’s not easy,” she said. “It’s hell for the students.

“I’m always stressing about where and when is the next money going to come, be from, and it’s hard.

“Things have changed.”

Lokko is currently paying $750 a month for rent; it’s set to go up in September. As part of her PhD program, she gets a stipend of $32,000 a year. But after tuition fees, which are also set to increase, she says she only has $1,000 left for the entire year.

“I cannot take on an extra job. I’m doing PhD full time. I am not able to combine my job at a factory or whatever… I don’t know what I’m going to do, to be honest.”

FILE – Rosemont Petite Patrie neighbourhood in August 2023. (Felisha Adam, CityNews)

Lokko is not alone in feeling the pinch among students in the city.

A study among student tenants living in Montreal shows skyrocketing rents in recent years have created a new phenomenon: sharing very small apartments.

Sharing one-bedroom apt. with three others

The study, published Wednesday by the Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE), shows that 10 per cent of student tenants say they share a closed one-bedroom apartment with at least three other tenants.

Previous UTILE surveys have already shown the tendency for students to group together in large units to reduce their expenses, but this new data seems to point to a new cost-cutting strategy.

The survey, involving 4,732 respondents, reveals that in addition to having experienced a 20 per cent rent increase in two years, almost 50 per cent of the 171,200 student tenants in Montreal have an annual income of less than $20,000.

“We’re hearing more stories of students that are reconsidering or changing their study plans due to that high cost of living,” said Laurent Levesque, co-founder and executive director of UTILE.

“We’re seeing students cope with rising rents as we see them going further from campuses. We’re seeing increases in debt burdens. We’re hearing more stories of students that are reconsidering or changing their study plans due to that high cost of living.”

Delaying education

Officials at the University of Sherbrooke say they are doing what they can to make sure international students aren’t changing or delaying their plans to study at the university because they are having difficulty finding housing.

“The housing problem is very real in Sherbrooke, and not just for the student community (80 per cent of whom come from outside the region), but for all those looking for affordable housing. The situation is difficult again this year, and UdeS is closely monitoring the situation,” a university official said in a statement.

“As far as we know, it’s mainly international students who have difficulty finding accommodation, as they wait until they have their legal papers before starting the process. This can take a long time, and the process is often more difficult for them (references, referees, credit checks, etc.).”

The university says it is working on implementing temporary support measures to help students who may not have accommodation.

UTILE is aiming to build a new student housing complex in Montreal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal borough as early as 2027.

“We are hoping that this (survey) empowers governments and institutions to do more, faster to tackle those issues,” said Levesque.

—With files from La Presse Canadienne