Student Housing Prices Rock Poverty Line

Recession rocks the student economy in Leiden as rent rises far above the poverty line! You can read all about it on the student forums of social media. The Leiden Housing Facebook group is a place where people go to look for solace and comfort, as they try to find a new place to live. People can post places they have to rent, and expect a blizzard of replies, as the homeless grapple with each other for the new place on the market.

The reasons people find themselves homeless are diverse, however a reoccurring cause is the student housing company DUOW. This two company has formed a cartel, strong-arming the price of rent into an unaffordable regime. The university is an implicit player, as they supply DUOW a steady stream of international students who have no idea what they are getting into.

The horror stories abound, and I found myself in one upon arrival. The place I was given was the cheapest available of their offerings, located in a boggy swamp, and far from the city centre. As you will see in my other posts, the place was full of filth and squalor, dominated by mosquitoes, and in disrepair. The company spent no effort on maintaining the building, allowed the internet to go down for weeks at a time during exam period, and charged outrageous prices to the students crammed into each hovel. While being the cheapest offering, it was still 340 Euros ($520 CAD). For comparison in Toronto, one of the most expensive places to live, I paid $460 CAD to live in the downtown. Many students here are paying over 600 Euros per month simply for a place to rest their head at night!

Suspect in the cause of such high prices is the ill-founded belief that international students have more money. This myth has long since been debunked, and in fact international students are simply poor students just like everyone else, in search of an education.

I myself faced this challenge, read about it in a following post.