Cerowyn Browne laments the woes of student housing and the treatment of students by private agencies and landlords.
Dilapidated homes, debt and being disregarded: the inheritance of the snowflake generation
"Are you sure you didn't spill a glass of water?" the woman from the letting agency asks as my housemate checks for damage to his laptop and dries out his smudged notes after water came through his ceiling from the shower above. That was in November. We live in a house of 8 that we rented from July 2017 expecting 3 working bathrooms however, since moving in we have often had only one which was fully functioning, partly due to the ceiling in one falling in. To make it worse we've had a hole in the top bathroom floor since the start, there was a thick layer of black plaster dust in my room when I moved in, for over a month half our hobs were broken and we have trip hazards from the holes in the stair carpet.
"When the agency heard we had contacted the council they became angry telling us how serious that was"
We had contacted the agency many times but very little was being done. Yet, when the agency heard we had contacted the council they became angry telling us how serious that was, apparently much more serious than having to walk down 4 flights of stairs to shower, sharing 4 hobs between 8 people and trying to complete the final year of our degree without our house collapsing upon us. You wouldn't think we were paying them £3,560 a month, bills not included, for the honour of their services.
"50% of issues take over a week to get sorted and 25% never are during their tenancy"
We are not alone in this, the student accommodation survey 2017 found that 47% of the students reported damp, 42% had experienced a lack of water or heating, 26% had infestations of rodents and pests and 17% had security issues. Not only that but 50% of issues take over a week to get sorted and 25% never are during their tenancy. All this against a background of an 8% increase in private sector rent between 2011 and 2017. Worse still, for students it was more than double that . Students haven't just stood by and let this happen however, one of my best friends was part of the rent strike in his first year at UCL to protest paying the £135 p/w rent back in 2016. His was the cheapest option available but was still double the running cost of the university-owned accommodation and was infested with cockroaches.
Lol who’s idea was it to make student housing more expensive than a mortgage???? For individuals who are already skint from paying £9000 a YEAR????? Baffles me yano
— Alex Hill (@alexhill96) February 22, 2018
What makes the situation worse is that it is raising a generation of young people whose only experience of the adult world is that of being charged extortionate prices, not being trusted to live in a decent property and being scammed and ignored as their housing falls apart around them. What is the impact of this upon young people's attitude to society? Those who learn that they have to put up with being treated badly will learn to treat others badly in the future. Those who learn that you have to fight tooth and nail to get a broken shower replaced, do not learn to help others. Those who learn that a deposit isn't something you actually get back but is taken from you for cleaning fees and for repairing a house that when you moved in was filthy and in disrepair are not likely to go into the world feeling trusted and trusting others. So often we students are dismissed as noisy, messy and lazy. Maybe if we were treated better we would have more respect for the communities we become part of?
"Those who learn that they have to put up with being treated badly will learn to treat others badly in the future"
The youth-quake was dismissed as foolish young people who hadn't experienced socialism, who greedily wanted to pay less tuition and liked Corbyn because he got Snapchat. Whatever you may think about socialism can you blame us for wanting a world where everyone is valued, no one is scammed by default and our mental health is valued more than our grades and the money we don't even have? A world where running yourself into the ground in the rat race of getting a graduate job is not the only route to success you are told about and you aren't ripped off for the privilege of a dilapidated and unhygienic living space.
My generation know we are lucky to have grown up well fed, free from many fears which previous generations have had and with the opportunity to go to university at all, but that does not mean our lives are always easy. Corbyn said he would abolish fees for future students, not us, and only said he would try to see us refunded if possible. So no, we didn't vote from a selfish desire to not be crippled by debt. But even if we had, could you blame us?
"I hope the current government listens to these and helps put a stop to the awful treatment that tenants, and particularly student tenants, receive"
In Denmark the government pays financial aid to developers of student housing and thus rent prices are lower. Labour's manifesto included an inflation cap on private sector rent rises and ideas to empower tenants. However, I have not heard of any help particularly aimed at supporting students. I hope the current government listens to these and helps put a stop to the awful treatment that tenants, and particularly student tenants, receive. I believe it isn't just important for us, but for the world we are going to be part of creating in the future.
.@BristolCouncil is proposing to tighten control over student accommodation developments in the city to mitigate against negative impacts on the housing crisis and communities:https://t.co/Ifqdlua0lU
— Bristol24/7 (@bristol247) February 21, 2018
In the mean time however, I really hope that our generation is taken more seriously and given more respect for the difficulties we face and the environmentally damaged and economically challenging world we are inheriting. As I watch many of those around me suffer breakdowns, experience depression and anxiety of my own and watch my debt creep up to around £45,000 it is hard to keep wanting to give back. All this with a house falling apart, a sense of guilt for taking Christmas off from work and my agency reprimanding us for fighting for our right to hygienic living quarters. I can't help but want to stand up for my generation, the entitled snowflakes.
Featured image: Epigram / Cameron Scheijde
