Students must start searching for accommodation in Dublin now or they may face living in hostels, student leaders have said.
Last week, the accommodation office in Trinity College Dublin emailed students on a waiting list for campus accommodation a list of more than 20 hostels in the city centre because they may not be able to find somewhere to live.
The Leaving Certificate results will be released two weeks from now on August 13th.
President of the Union of Students Ireland (USI) Laura Harmon said a meeting was held between Dublin colleges and NUI Maynooth to discuss the crisis, earlier this week.
Dublin is home to over 80,000 students and 20 per cent of those are international students.
Patricia Kastner, a University College Dublin masters student, was forced to live in a hostel for several weeks while trying to find accommodation last year.
“I moved over from Germany last year and couldn’t find anywhere suitable to live so I had to live in hostels. It was difficult to live out of a suitcase and try and study when there was several people in a room at any given time. It was expensive and I had to keep moving around,”she said.
Ms Kastner said she eventually found accommodation but had to move out in April when the landlady decided to sell the house.
“I got another place close to the college but I think the problem for students is going to be even worse this September. There are far more students enrolling this year and a lack of properties so people need to start searching now,” she said.
Ms Harmon said the USI are appealing to people to who may be in a position to provide a room or digs for students.
Ms Harmon said there needs to be a Government led strategy specifically for student accommodation because they are a “unique group”.
“The Government’s Construction 20/20 strategy launched in May, runs to 72 pages but only mentions the word student once so that is part of the problem,” she said.
TCD Students’s Union president Dómhnall McGlacken-Byrne said that despite the problems, students should remain calm.
“There is a problem but we’re doing all we can to ensure it doesn’t become a crisis. The abiding feeling is that we’re working in the short term but it needs to be dealt with in the long term,” he said.
“I would advise students or parents of students looking for accommodation in Dublin to remain calm and not panic. Do your research and don’t take rent from a landlord that isn’t registered or only takes cash,” he said.
“Students are being squeezed out of the private rental accommodation sector so there needs to be an incentive for people to rent to students and some kind of obstacle for people who discriminate against them which is happening unrestrainedly at the moment.”