UCC students commuting before dawn as housing crisis fuels daily parking battle

Sky-high rents and a lack of public student housing are forcing UCC students into long commutes and daily parking stress

Alex Fuertes Roper: ‘Our main message to the Government is that we need it to invest in more publicly owned and purpose-built student accommodation in Cork.’ File Picture: Larry Cummins

The increase in the number of University College Cork (UCC) students with no choice but to commute to attend their lectures has led to a daily battle for parking spaces that sees some arriving on campus before dawn.

For many, commuting from home or from accommodation elsewhere in Cork is their only option because they cannot find somewhere to rent closer.

“It’s just not feasible for them to get anything close to campus,” UCC Students’ Union (UCCSU) communications officer Alex Fuertes Roper said.

“It’s cheaper for them to stay with their parents or in a cheaper area [of Cork than close to campus] like Cobh.”

Although the majority of UCC students live within 10km of their college, some are making very long daily roundtrips.

“We do have cases of students coming all the way from Limerick,” Mr Fuertes Roper said.

The most common commute people have is coming into Kent train station, and then they have to get a bus or walk. It’s a long commute, so they’d prefer to drive sometimes

A knock-on effect of all this means that students are finding it harder and harder to find parking space across the UCC campus.

In response, the UCCSU now hosts free breakfasts Monday to Wednesday. These are geared towards the commuting students who arrive at the campus at 6am to secure their space.

“When you are travelling at those times in the morning you are not going to stop for breakfast realistically,” Mr Fuertes Roper added.

Housing, and specifically affordable housing, is a massive issue for students in Cork, he said.

Cork has the lowest percentage of public, purpose-built student accommodation.

“Only 18% of all student beds in Cork are publicly owned, meaning that the rest — which is about 6,500 beds roughly — are all privately owned. They are double, if not triple, the price of public ones.

“The annual cost to rent publicly owned accommodation, such as UCC’s campus accommodation, goes for between €6,000 and €7,000.

“Whereas the privately owned range from €14,000 to as high as €18,000. That is the highest we have found.”

Cork lags far behind other counties in this regard: It stands at 36% in Galway, 44% in Dublin, and 56% in Limerick.

Skipping lectures, dropping out

The lack of available accommodation is having a deep impact on students, he said. More are inclined to skip lectures, more are inclined to drop out. Worryingly, access to affordable accommodation risks becoming the biggest barrier to third level education.

Mr Fuertes Roper said: “We are finding, around the whole country, there is an increase in students deciding to not come to college, or who are seeing college as a privilege, or who realise that they just cannot [financially] support themselves.”

Unaffordable rents coupled with the cost of living means that more students now are working more hours a week on top of pursuing their studies. A recent survey by UCCSU found that 20% of the students who took part were working 20 hours a week on top of their full-time degree.

As a direct response to the crisis, UCCSU helps operate a chat amongst students to allow them to share rooms they are vacating that are capped at reasonable prices.

“We make sure its capped at €700 a month so it’s as affordable as it can be with the cost of living. That’s a support we’ve started ourselves,” Mr Fuertes Roper said.

With it being so difficult to secure any form of affordable housing in the first place, many students are hesitant to complain about quality.

At the end of the day, students need a bed and a roof

“The situation in Cork is that, if you are being offered a room, the shortage is at such a level that many students are not going to care about the quality,"Mr Fuertes Roper said.

That being said, the quality of what’s available still remains an issue. The UCCSU recently surveyed 50 private properties rented by students.

“A lot of the time we found there was maybe nine or seven students in one house. They would have mould, and students would commonly get sick. Many of them would have holes in the walls or ceilings, or appliances didn’t work,” Mr Fuertes Roper said.

“It’s just a very common issue around the 50 accommodation properties we looked into — the mould and the damp.

“Our main message to the Government is that we need it to invest in more publicly owned and purpose-built student accommodation in Cork. There’s just not enough accommodation.”

• Jess Casey is the Education Correspondent with the Irish Examiner.