Failing to find housing, women students face family pressure to return home

Photo: Yurtsuzlar/Twitter

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Universities' return to in-class education has revealed the extent of the housing problems for students. There are still many university students who haven't been able to find housing although classes have started in some universities.

In addition to students' problems with dormitory shortage and high rent prices, women students also have to deal with family pressure and the risk of not being able to go to school.

"I'm depressed"

Women students who spoke to bianet said their families called them back to home because they couldn't find a dormitory.

Nazlı A. from the southern Osmaniye province, was enrolled in Ege University in İzmir, western Turkey. Because she hasn't been able to find a place to stay, her relatives call her every day, asking her to suspend her registration.

"I was so overwhelmed that I can say that I have fallen into depression. University became suffering for me because they disrupted my psychology.

"They interfered with my life so much as if it was normal, I felt breathless. But no matter how hard they try, I am at war with my own psychology and I will go to university for myself."

The fear of harassment

Nazlı, who applied to a state dormitory, said she was unable to be placed like many of her friends. Moving into a home is not as easy for women as it is for men, she said.

"Men can quickly find some people to move into a home. But the situation is not the same for women. It's either family problems, or landlords don't want, or there is no one that we can trust.

"Also, men don't have the fear of harassment while going to school on the metro or bus, but we live with this fear. Because of that, we want to stay close to in places close to the school but it's not possible right now."

Private dormitories are expensive and they don't offer food while asking extra charges for laundry, she said. "My family is not in a situation to meet these fees."

"There were some people in my class who moved into a home, but it is too expensive to move into a new home in a city where I came for the first time. I thought about freezing my registration for a long time."

Family pressure

İlayda İ. from the northeastern Samsun province studies at İstanbul Kültür University on a scholarship. She said she had applied to a state dormitory and is now the 9,000th substitute applicant. She was enrolled at the university last year.

"It's been three weeks since my school opened. I fell behind in classes. October 15 is the deadline for choosing a course. However, I'll be absent from classes if I choose courses.

"I have an aunt in İstanbul. I thought about staying at her but [her home] is three hours away [from the school]. It's impossible to go to school every day from there. I through about an undergraduate transfer to my hometown but that didn't happen."

İlayda said she had applied to the school's dormitory but whether she will be able to stay there will be clear in two months. She struggles with uncertainty, she added.

"It' not clear where I'll stay, what I'll do. My family tells me to 'freeze your school year' because we couldn't arrange a place to stay. I have nothing to do now and I don't feel good about the future.

"More dormitories"

N.B. from Antalya, southern Turkey, was enrolled at İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. She is the 5,000th substitute applicant for a state dormitory.

"I stay with a relative of ours who lives in İstanbul. Because the home is far from school, I have to trave two and a half hours to the schools and I'm late for some classes.

"Also, we encounter the approach that 'What are you doing in İstanbul as a girl, something may happen to you'."

She was also called back to their hometown by their family after the dormitory problems: "I'm very sad. Did I work for a year for going to university for nothing? I don't expect much from the state or municipalities. Don't they see these students? They should build dormitories. Private dormitories ask fees high than the minimum monthly wage. One of them wanted 34,000 lira in advance, it was like a joke."

Student housing protests

As universities' return to in-person classes after one and a half years of distance learning coincided with an excessive increase in rent prices across the country, especially in greater cities, students have faced a housing crisis when they returned to their schools.

On September 18, a group of university students who call themselves the "Movement of the Unsheltered" spent the night at a park in İstanbul's Kadıköy district, protesting the high housing prices.

The protests spread to many provinces, with students keeping vigils and holding marches at nights. Police have detained dozens of students in various parts of the country.

According to a study by Bahçeşehir University, rents in İstanbul, the largest city of Turkey, increased by over 50 percent in August compared to the same month last year. The rate of increase in Ankara, the capital, and İzmir, the third largest city of the country, was above 30 percent.

The insufficient capacity and high fees of dormitories are also on the target of the student protests.

There are about eight million university students in Turkey, a country of 83 million people, with millions of students studying in a different city than their hometown.

(CA/EMK/VK)

STUDENT HOUSING CRISIS