More than 2,500 new beds coming to University of Guelph student housing

A rendering of the proposal for Wellington Woods. (Courtesy: University of Guelph)

The University of Guelph will be adding 2,500 new beds as students continue to struggle to find a place to live.

In a news release, the school said it will be redeveloping two sites at the current student housing community of Wellington Woods to create a new residence for graduate and upper-year undergraduate students at the corner of Gordon Street and College Avenue West.

Units would include a combination of studios suitable for individuals and townhomes tailored to students with families.

The plan also calls for the construction of a new eight-storey residence geared toward graduate and upper-year undergraduate students. It would include approximately 280 studio units, retail space, a lecture hall and study space.

The school anticipates the work will take place over the next 10 years.

Currently, Wellington Woods offers 138 townhouse units spread out over 13 acres of land.

The university said they want the redevelopment work to happen gradually, prioritizing the wellbeing of current tenants.

The latest announcement comes after the school previously announced plans to build a 1,500 bed first-year student residence at College Avenue West and McGilvray Street.

Struggling to find housing

The recent housing announcements come after University of Guelph students told CTV News they were having trouble finding suitable housing for the current academic year. Similar issues were also reported in 2022 and 2023.

Parents of the first-year students said they were reassured by the University of Guelph that residence would not be an issue. Then, they were later told they wouldn’t have a guaranteed spot in residence for the fall.

In June, the school sent out emails to 1,365 first-year students letting them know they had been put on a residence waitlist.

At the time, Gwen Chapman, the school’s provost and academic vice-president, told CTV News the university had planned on accommodating students in residence, but it was impossible to know exactly how many students would ultimately pick the university as their school of choice.

“The challenge is that many students are applying at multiple universities, five or even more, so we know that probably most of the students that we make offers to may not accept our offer, and they will decide to go somewhere else.”

Chapman explained the school made predictions based on acceptance rates from previous years, but this year, the numbers led them astray.

“As early as April we were realizing that the response and the requests for residence were getting high and we weren't sure that we would be able to accommodate everybody,” Chapman said. “It was about two or three percentage points higher than last year, which actually results in a significantly higher number of students.”

She added that in the week leading up to the June 3 deadline, the school started to get concerned about the final tally. Then they realized they had a very real problem.

“Many students, much more than last year, accepted our offer over the last weekend. A week before the deadline, we knew we were doing well, but it wasn't until the actual deadline that we that we got all of those numbers,” said Chapman.