The academic year is starting back up, which means it’s time for students to play a familiar game.
Would you rather live in a house riddled with mould, or a house where your rent costs more than a two week holiday in the south of France? Would you rather live in a house where you are banished from the hours of 9am to 8pm, or pay to live in a house where all perfumes and aerosol deodorants are banned?
Would you rather have to share a bed with a stranger and still pay extortionate bills or have no cooking facilities beyond a kettle and a toaster that trips the electric switch?
I am originally from Mayo and going into my third year study at Trinity College Dublin.
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Each summer, hordes of international tourists flock to the college to take in its historic beauty, to explore a campus that has housed literary greats such as Samuel Beckett and Sally Rooney. As I spend my work lunch breaks and commute on the bus looking at housing websites such as Daft.ie and Rent.ie, I wonder why Trinity can’t house me and the thousands of other students who are searching desperately for accommodation.
It is no secret Ireland has a housing crisis. Scarcity and price are the two factors that make it near impossible to find somewhere relatively okay to rent, especially in Dublin city centre.
Since late July, I have applied to 70 houses on Daft.ie, texted many friends of friends advertising rooms on Instagram stories and I have been offered seven viewings. Of those seven viewings, one house didn’t suit when I looked at the real address; two I couldn’t make due to illness or work; at three viewings, I didn’t end up getting the room, and one agent ghosted me.
Rooms are being uploaded fairly regularly but are receiving dizzying traction. One house in Rathmines with extremely reasonable rent got over 1,000 hits within the first six hours. This is an indication of the scale of the crisis – among students, families and working professionals.
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Stories recounted by friends in Trinity and other colleges nationwide are eye-opening. Some students live in digs which often only allow you to be in the house between Sunday evening and Friday afternoon. The question of what occurs in the room you are paying for during the time you are not there is never disclosed.
Some apply to private student accommodation, which can cost upwards of €12,000 for a 41-week contract. Some rely on friends, sleeping on bedroom floors or couches in a shared kitchen. Some reputedly sleep in their cars in overnight car parks, or car parks near to campus.
I’ve heard of three and four-hour commutes each way, with students racking up over 40 hour travel weeks. These complications – weekday only digs, expensive accommodation, long, intense commutes and overall lack of housing security, explain why college life is not living up to the expectations of many.
Online college forums are saturated with messages saying, “I’m commuting 2.5 hours to college. What societies can I participate in?” or “Does anyone know any societies who hold events during the day? My last train home is at half six.” College is hard enough even with friends. Without the ability to create a network of friends around you that can support you, it can be a very lonely experience.
The impact of the lack of safe and accessible accommodation can show through in a student’s grades, their involvement in college, and even their ability to form relationships.
Only this year, Trinity lifted an archaic policy which ruled that overnight guests could only be signed into college accommodation before midnight. The college accommodation crisis makes much of the talk about safe sex and free contraception feel null and void. Safe sex is not only about the protection and consent between both parties, but also about having a safe and private space where you can spend time with a partner.
In 2022, Trinity College opened Printing House Square, a complex consisting of 42 apartments. It can hold a total of 249 students. Printing House Square is the most expensive of all accommodation on the Trinity College campus, with a “double/ king” room setting students back a total of €10,085 over 240 days, or just over €42 a day. Built in the midst of a student accommodation crisis, the price bracket of these rooms completely goes against their functionality.
Trinity’s student accommodation caters mostly for first years (in Trinity Halls in Dartry) and final years (on campus.) The accommodation board in Trinity is compassionate to students, but there are limitations to what it can do.
If you take the price of accommodation, food (€30 a week, by my calculation), the bare minimum on toiletries (€12 a month), maybe a few euro on your Leap card every week (€10), the odd coffee with a friend so you can socialise (€10) a pint or two during the week (€14), presents at Christmas for a few family members (€100), and a few new pairs of socks or underwear (€50) over the course of the 41 weeks, you’d need to be working nearly 24 hours at the minimum wage to fund it.
With up to 50 hours of independent study expected per week, depending on the number of credits you take, that’s impossible. You can get good grades or you can pay your rent - you can’t do both.
This isn’t just for the State to solve – if we keep forcing talented and hardworking students to drop out or study abroad, it becomes an issue for society. Why don’t more people take advantage of the rent-a-room scheme? But only give your gaff if you GAF (give a f**k) – if you are a well-off homeowner who doesn’t need the money, offer students cheaper rent. Show compassion around exam season: if they need to stay up a weekend or two, just give them the benefit of the doubt.
Third level institutions need to ramp up building the accommodation that has been promised. And the Government needs to regulate student accommodation to ensure it is priced at a level that students can reasonably be expected to pay.
Thankfully I eventually found somewhere safe and warm to live, due to the immense kindness of my best mate’s family.
However, many students, especially those moving to a new city for the first time, won’t be so lucky. How many more academic years will begin in the same way, with thousands of students forced to join the same grim version of “would you rather”?
Julie Gleeson is a third year student studying English at Trinity College Dublin
