When students are house-poor: Urban universities, student marginality, and the hidden curriculum of student housing

Abstract

Despite the implied centrality of students to studentification research, much of the current debate on universities and urban change often ignores the voices of students. Common presumptions about students attending universities take for granted middle-class trajectories that do not account for their variegated identities and experiences. This paper examines university students' housing experiences in Toronto, a city that has experienced a rapid financialization and commoditization of housing markets. Using focus group data, we examine the housing landscape of students from their perspective, including their housing preferences, strategies to access affordable accommodations, and the effects of housing and economic stress on their wellbeing. Our findings indicate that the lack of adequate, affordable, and accessible housing for students has forced them to tacitly learn to be “resourceful” and “creative” in the task of securing housing. We argue that variations in student housing experiences act as a “hidden curriculum” that normalizes socio-economic burdens. This hidden curriculum, embedded in inadequate housing experiences, has forced students to hustle to survive, further marginalizing students and reproducing social hierarchies and class, gender, racialized, or ageist divides. We conclude with recommendations, some suggested by students themselves, to improve the student housing situation in cities with expensive housing markets.