We Are Underwhelmed

A recent Western Front (the student voice of WWU) article reported, “Overcrowding and an overwhelming demand for student housing required Western's University Residences to lease 45 bedrooms in the New York Apartment for the 2008-2009 school year, forcing many current residents to move due to increasing costs.” You can read the article in its entirety by clicking here. Given that the university can house only about 3,900 students in its existing dormitories, it is difficult to understand the manner in which the increase of 45 units will appreciably affect the status quo. If this action on the part of WWU merely displaces students, who already comprise the bulk of New York Apartment renters, the net effect on total available units hovers near zero. The main problem still remains, that is, adequate housing for the other 8,000 or more students who are thrown into the rental maw each year. In attempting to save money, these young folks make the economically viable choice to rent as a group, whence springs many an illegal rooming house. Add to the equation students from Whatcom Community College and the Bellingham Technical College, not to mention other young wage earners and low-income families, and the rental rates rise due to the competition. Yet the focus (not to mention funds) of the university is in ensuring that, as the musical chairs game we call waterfront development continues, it will have a chair to sit on as the music stops. No matter that thousands of students each year play musical chairs in their quest to find adequate, safe and healthy housing. “And the band played on…”