Renting in Kingston has crossed the line from expensive to unaffordable.
Kingston is now the fourth-most-expensive Canadian city to rent in, according to Zumper. With a median price of $2,120 per month, Kingston’s beyond unaffordable, and the rising prices are affecting both students and the broader community alike. The high price points to Kingston’s unique composition; full of student houses, as well as families and seniors, and riddled with historic zoning regulations. But excuses aside, the soaring rental price points to failures on behalf of the city, and one of its largest institutions; Queen’s.
The housing mayhem’s fed into by the student population, as first years rush to sign leases before they’ve even unpacked in residence. Landlord’s are no help, they latch on to the sense of desperation and raise prices exorbitantly year-over-year—uninhibited by rent control due to student turnover. It’s not always the landlord’s fault, they must keep up with the market, but there’s no shortage of horror stories featuring students being taken advantage of.
The average cost of a unit in Kingston has risen over 25 per cent in the last 10 years, an unprecedented surge compared to other Canadian cities. And students aren’t the only ones affected. Single parent households are among those most vulnerable to rising rent prices.
The Kingston Planning Services Department, the bureaucracy tasked with land use and urban growth, is currently undergoing significant changes due to provincial mandates for increased housing. However, one can’t help but wonder if it’s too little, too late.
On the Queen’s side of things, the University needs to recognize that students are being priced out of their University. Though the University provides some student housing though Queen’s Community Housing, it isn’t enough to combat the rising rent prices. Increasingly, prospective students are deciding not to come to Queen’s because of rising rent prices. Not only are the rent prices bad for business, but it’s also bad for accessibility. With horrible winter weather, Queen’s students who can’t afford to live close to campus face barriers to their education.
The University is in a hole—housing prices have gotten far too high for the school to be able to buy more student housing. But given the circumstances, one can’t help but wonder if they’re the ones holding the shovel. It’s time for the City and the University to work towards an innovative solution. Whether that’s more on-campus housing in the form of upper year residences, or a more innovative city plan, stakeholders in the housing crisis must act to protect Kingston’s most vulnerable.
—Journal Editorial Board
Tags
affordability, housing, Kingston, rent
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