By: Grace Rajballie | January 29, 2020
In February of 2019, Redeemer University announced that there would be a 42% reduction in tuition for Canadian undergraduate students. Since lowering academic fees, the school has experienced an enrolment increase of 14.5% and are hopeful that the student body only continues to grow. While this is an exciting time of change at Redeemer, it has required that the school re-evaluates its capacity. In previous years, on campus housing was guaranteed to first and second year students and was also available to third and fourth year students. Various Redeemer graduates from the class of 2018 lived in dorms and Augustine Hall for the duration of their undergrad at Redeemer. Now, with the influx of new students, Redeemer has confirmed that there will be no guaranteed housing spots for returning students who were born before January 1, 2001.
The recent email sent just a few weeks ago regarding housing has some students concerned, as they had relied on living in Augustine hall. While it may seem that there aren’t very many off-campus houses available, I am hopeful that this article will give you some insight on how to find more information regarding off-campus housing.
Although we are growing, relative to public universities Redeemer is still a small, tight knit community. One of the great things about this is that we are acquainted with many of our peers, some of which are in different years of study than us. When looking for a place to live next year, ask around. Perhaps your old RA lives off campus and is about to graduate or you have a friend from a sports team who has open spots in their house. A fourth year Redeemer student found her current house by asking around, “I heard about off-campus housing from friends who already lived off campus and knew what houses were being rented/what houses had students that were graduating and would be moving out.” However, if you find that you have exhausted your contacts at Redeemer, try asking your church family. Sometimes people in your church may have a basement apartment that they are looking to rent out or know of a friend who is a landlord.
In addition to inquiring through word of mouth, there are a lot of great e-resources for finding a house which I have listed below:
Redeemer also has its own webpage for students that are seeking housing https://www.redeemer.ca/rentals/ . A second year student who currently lives off campus says, “ I heard about off-campus housing because of an advertisement in our Redeemer Class of 2022 Facebook group.”
Since many of my peers were able to continue living on campus in their upper years of study, I can’t say I can completely relate to the situation many of you are currently experiencing. However, I know how frustrating it can be when you don’t have a plan. As a serious control freak and planner, the issue of not being able to find a house would stress me out a lot. While it is definitely frustrating, I want to encourage you to remember the “why” behind the reduced availability of on campus housing. By God’s grace, we were given a generous donation allowing Christian education to be more accessible to Canadian undergraduate students. While our dorms are going to be filled, our classrooms, gymnasium, library and campus will also be filled with young people who have a desire to study alongside us in an environment that fosters learning from a Christian perspective. As you continue in your search for housing, remember that God is faithful. He will make a way and find room for you!