By Matthew Brown, Fourth Year, (MEng) Engineering Design with Study in Industry (Civil Stream)
A recent opinion piece for Epigram explored the impact of Bristol’s growing student population on the city’s homelessness crisis and how students might help. It's an important conversation, but the article misrepresents the structural causes at play and proposes some questionable solutions. Here's my take.
Sian Williams
I agree there is a housing crisis in Bristol and across the UK, and that the growing student population in Bristol exacerbates the problem. However, it is important to assess the causes of the growing student population and the dire state of the housing supply before placing ‘blame’ on those seeking higher education.
The claim that building new purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) is using up land that ‘could be used for affordable housing’ is misleading. Firstly, they are treated differently under the current planning regulations, so PBSA can be built on land where affordable housing cannot. Secondly, PBSA can indirectly increase the availability and affordability of housing; it can have much higher density, with smaller private rooms and shared amenities that are not feasible for affordable housing. This reduces the spill-over of students into converted HMOs, where they may displace or disrupt local households and communities.
That being said, developers are encouraged to target the growing number of international students, many of whom are able and willing (sometimes required) to pay higher rent. As universities' finances are constrained, we are increasingly reliant on the fees paid by overseas students, which have more than tripled to over 23 per cent of total university income since the mid-1990s. In turn, this drives demand for premium PBSA which is not affordable for the average student. This does not mean that PBSA in general makes housing less affordable, in fact Bristol City Council published guidance in 2021 which recognised the need for PBSA.
An alternative to private PBSA is for the government to expand publicly funded and university-owned accommodation. Public and university housing can be planned to meet affordability, accessibility, and community needs, rather than the needs of private developers to make a profit. Paired with rent controls, this could massively reduce the cost of housing in Bristol. If it can work in Vienna, why not here?
‘If we do not tackle the underlying problems - inadequate affordable supply, profit-driven PBSA, and university funding models that shift costs onto students and local housing markets - we will see more and more people excluded from higher education.’
The article also argues that students should provide direct support for the homeless by volunteering, striking up conversations, or buying food. While small acts of kindness are valuable, for many students this moralising approach is not helpful. Many students are already balancing their studies with part-time work, a trend that will only increase as rent prices rise and sources of funding diminish, as nationally, 68 per cent of full-time graduates were already working part-time during their academic terms in 2025.
Suggesting that students should choose to live further from the city-centre and commute in does not address the structural causes of this crisis. In fact, many students are already living further from campus, out of necessity and not by choice. Similarly, there is likely to be an increase in young people ‘not coming to the University of Bristol at all’, as a result of rising costs disproportionately affecting those from underprivileged backgrounds. If we do not tackle the underlying problems like inadequate affordable supply, profit-driven PBSA, and university funding models that shift costs onto students and local housing markets, we will see more and more people excluded from higher education.
Christina Park
Ultimately, students can help alleviate Bristol’s homelessness crisis not through individual acts of charity, but by understanding and engaging with the structural forces behind it. For those who do have the capacity to help, volunteering with charities can be a productive route, though, as the article says, they can only alleviate the surface of the situation. Getting involved with community unions like ACORN is another effective route: they organise to fight evictions and pressure on councils and governments for systemic change – for example, they helped strengthen the recent Renter’s Rights Bill. Changing a broken system will be difficult; but sustained, organised action might just make housing in Bristol fairer and keep education open to everyone.
Featured image: Unsplash / Jon Tyson
Who do you agree with: Matthew or Sian?
