Struggling students want rent relief during COVID-19 pandemic

Students want rent relief due to pandemic A new financial aid package from the government couldn't have come soon enough for students still paying rent during the pandemic.

TORONTO — The federal government announced a $9 billion package to help students facing financial hardship due to COVID-19 and for students who still pay rent, but have moved back home, it couldn’t have come a moment too soon.

“My rent is $800 a month,” Stanley Yip, a University of Waterloo student who had to move back to live with his parents in Toronto due to the pandemic, said.

“Not only is the rent a lot of money for students the job market is also not going to be great for many of us when we do graduate.”

Yasmin Awadalla is also a Waterloo University student who has moved back with her family in Oakville. All her classes have been moved online but she still has to pay more than $500 in rent for an apartment she is not using.

She says she has friends that pay more than $700 in rent per month.

“I honestly believe it's ridiculous for students who are 19 and 20 years old having to pay funds for school housing we are not even using," Awadalla said.

Students in the Kitchener-Waterloo area have started an online petition on the website Change.org calling to waive the rent for students or to give them financial support for rent. They have almost 7,500 people who have signed the petition.

Many colleges and universities have put their class online and many students live in student housing or apartment with four to eight people, which doesn’t work with social distancing measures.

The creation of the Canada Emergency Student Benefit is welcome news for college and university students and could give them $1,250 a month for four months. Still some students don’t feel that money should go to pay for rent in places they no longer live.

“Ideally we want the rent to be waived, but that might be too ideal, however there should be awareness that some students are struggling really hard and we do need attention from the government,” Yip said.

Many students sublet their apartments during the summer months to try and recoup some of their costs, but many schools have their classes online until September so students say subletting this year will be much more difficult to do.