Students face 'housing crisis' as universities about to open

A student in Sakarya protests high dormitory fees and rent prices in front of the Sakarya University campus.

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With the start of the academic year approaching, university students across the country have faced a serious housing problem amid excessively high rent prices.

The insufficient capacity and increased fees of dormitories and many dormitories being far from campuses are also among the students' problems.

Having become a vital crisis, the housing problem led the youth from different ages, schools and jobs to establish a new collective movement named the "Movement of the Unsheltered."

Kemal Yılmaz (23), a member of the movement, works part time and will study public relations and promotion at Kocaeli University this year.

The housing problem was perceived as intangible but with the universities opened, "it is in front of us in the most tangible form," he says.

"We don't know what those who are responsible for this problem will do. The only thing we know is that they are highly likely to use this problem to create spaces for extra income."

The movement wants the students to stay in good dormitories without exorbitant prices and affordable apartments without compromising their life quality, says Yılmaz.

It recently published a WhatsApp number for students to report their problems in housing. "The youth have many problems today. But there is no one whom they can reach about their problems. There are ostensible authorities, but there is no one who deals with problems.

"We wanted those who could not find shelter to find a solution together to the situations they experienced."

They mostly receive reports about rights violations, Yılmaz notes. "Neighborhoods, schools, cities change but the problem does not change."

"This is too much"

"The picture we are facing is not something we had never predicted, but it's a picture that we say is 'too much.'

"For example, staying at a bachelor pad has always been difficult for students. For that reason, it's not hard to guess that our friends will go to the cities where their universities are after two years of online education will have financial problems. Similarly, the apartments rented to students are lower in quality that those who are rented to families.

"However, when we look at the situation now, we see a rent hike of about 80-100 percent in the past month, let alone the home being old and ruined. In the KYK [Higher Education Student Loans and Dormitories Institution] dormitories, we see a fee rise and that we are asked the fee of September, even though we can settle in the dormitories just one day before our universities open.

"There are about two weeks on average until universities open. We can neither a dormitory nor an apartment to stay in. The number of the aggrieved is millions. Summing up all these, the only way out of this situation is to put up a struggle.

"We want students to be supported rather that giant companies and holdings." (SO/VK)