Whereas the Alliance of BC Students ABCS has identified that over the past ten years, the growth in full time and international student populations at British Columbia post-secondary educational institutions has greatly outpaced development of new student housing spaces, forcing students to search for affordable housing off-campus in rental markets with low vacancy rates; And whereas ABCS research indicates that if the restriction on debt were removed for the development of university residences, the business case exists to unlock over 20,000 new student housing spaces province wide: Therefore be it resolved that the provincial government remove the restriction on public entity debt that presently applies to British Columbias public post-secondary educational institutions, or employ other mechanisms that have been successful in providing housing options, thereby enabling these colleges and universities to take on debt to build new student housing.
Ministry of Advanced Education Government remains committed to working with post-secondary institutions to increase the supply of student housing in a sustainable manner that meets the needs of students. As part of the Provincial Governments 500 million investment announced in September 2016, a mix of new affordable rental housing will be developed to meet the needs of a wide variety of people throughout the province. This could include partnering with post-secondary institutions on the construction of new affordable student housing. The Ministry of Advanced Education is exploring options to increase student housing spaces, including looking at different financing vehicles to enable public post-secondary institutions to increase student housing without debt being added to the provinces books.