MUN should be doing more to help house those displaced by Canada Games prep, students say

Alex Kennedy · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 31, 2025 4:30 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 hours ago

Preparation for the Canada Summer Games means prime residence buildings connected Memorial University's St. John's field volition beryllium closed from April to September.

And though 2 students accidental announcement was given, they judge the assemblage should beryllium doing much to assistance students who won't person a spot to live.

"I would accidental it was lone a mates of weeks agone [that we] received the connection from the lodging office," James Chang-Yu, a pupil surviving successful residence for 1 ½ years, told CBC News this week.

"It's truly hard for america to navigate the system. Like trying to find off-campus housing."

The affected residences volition location athletes participating successful the Canada Games. The field itself is serving arsenic the athlete's village, a hub for athletes to eat, slumber and enactment successful events extracurricular of competition.

Memorial archetypal relayed the quality successful May 2024 that students surviving successful Guy and Gilbert Courts, on with Paton College and MacPherson College, would person to determination retired by April 23 to let repairs and attraction to hap successful the lead-up to the Games, according to MUN Canada Games readying pb Jordan Wright.

Other notifications person since followed, with the astir caller 1 being sent connected March 4.

Chang-Yu said helium knew astir the plan, but wished students were amended informed — saying a posting connected MUN's website tin beryllium easy ignored.

Kohana Takeuchi, an speech pupil from Japan, said that though she's known astir the determination since the commencement of the autumn semester, uncovering lodging has inactive been a challenge.

"I privation to enactment here," Takeuchi said. "I'd emotion to unrecorded successful campus, origin it's adjacent and we don't request to instrumentality transport. We don't person a car, truthful we request to instrumentality a bus, truthful I effort to find arsenic adjacent [a] spot arsenic possible."

Chang-Yu said it's besides important for him to beryllium connected campus, particularly arsenic an planetary student.

"It's benignant of similar the archetypal interaction constituent [for] planetary radical who came to Canada," helium said. "It feels similar a community."

Advisors tin assistance students find housing: MUN

Wright told CBC News that astir 100 students unrecorded successful the affected buildings. Some of them, however, would beryllium moving retired successful April anyhow arsenic they implicit their programs.

He empathized with students who whitethorn beryllium presently near without housing, and said MUN has already taken steps to guarantee students are supported.

"We bash person an off-campus lodging advisor who is moving with immoderate students…. But also, specifically for this summer, knowing that we would person accrued request and immoderate accrued inquiries, we bash person a unit idiosyncratic who is helping students close now."

Wright said astir 30 students person reached retired to the advisors since the past announcement connected March 4, and astir a 3rd of them person recovered places to live.

The buildings designated for residence volition beryllium closed from April to September for attraction and usage during the Games. Hundreds of enactment orders are successful place, Wright said.

The assemblage has besides shared a database of landlords with students who question assistance from the housing advisor — but said landlords aren't vetted by MUN.

Takeuchi told CBC News she received the list, but lone 1 landlord responded.

Wright said immoderate pupil who wants to instrumentality to field surviving successful the autumn volition person a spot successful residence, Wright said.

"We admit that this does origin immoderate disruption, and we surely privation to enactment our students."

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