VICTORIA MARTINEZ
Senior News Editor

Housing Issues

Engineering councillor Leejay Schmidt presented council with his research on the state of housing in Saskatoon and made suggestions to council for improving the situation.

He came “bearing a laser pointer” to point out that the vacancy rate has actually increased more than two percentage points since 2007, from 0.6 per cent to three per cent.

However, unlike in other markets, in the housing market this lessened supply pressure has not led to a dip in prices. The cost of housing continues to rise relentlessly, with the average cost for a two-bedroom place without utilities moving from $693 in 2007 to $905 this year.

On the University of Saskatchewan campus, the dearth of available residence beds also presents a huge challenge to affordable living in the city. Currently, there are spaces for six per cent of undergraduates. Even with the 800 beds to be provided in the next few years, only 12 per cent of students will live in residence. The national average is 15 per cent.

Schmidt proposed improving the existing housing registry by regulating its maximum listing prices, limiting locations of places on the registry to safe areas and demanding that the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union inspect homes to prevent students from investing in dilapidated places. He also stressed that the registry should be better advertised.

USSU president Chris Stoicheff agreed on advertisement. However, he felt that the cost of inspection and increased liability of the USSU should it choose to rate listed homes prohibited such action.

Scott Hitchings, vice president operations and finance, mentioned the existence of a housing handbook but could not remember its name. Vice president student affairs Leon Thompson said the information could be accessed through him.

More white water park discussion

Vocal support for the proposed white water park discussed last week went through another discussion this week.

Shumlich stressed the limited mandate of a student government to student issues, not to issues that affect students: “Student issues have a direct impact on student life,” he said. He felt that the proposed park did not have a direct impact and thus the USSU did not have a mandate to act.

Stoicheff, who has declared a conflict of interests and will not vote on whether to provide vocal support, suggested that council should give some support.