SU Housing Day offers advice to students seeking homes

The Students’ Union (SU) will be holding a Housing Day on 11 January as part of its Relax campaign.

The event will take place from 10am – 4pm in the Atrium, and aims to advise students about housing. It will be the first of two housing days being held in term 2, the second taking place in Week 4.

The SU runs a housing campaign annually to combat freshers panicking about housing availability and signing contracts early without thorough consideration or knowledge of what they are agreeing to.

SU Welfare Officer Izzy John hoped to dispel the myth of there being limited housing in Leamington Spa, “there is plenty of housing available and so there is no need for students to panic.”

She said that students should “take their time to do some research and have plenty of viewings instead of being panicked into signing for the first house they see.” She added that there is a “massive misconception that Leamington is the place to be”, quoting that there are approximately 3,700 students living in Coventry this year and 4,000 in Leamington Spa.

The day is an opportunity for students to come and talk to all the Advice Centre staff, John herself, Warwick Accommodation, Warwick and Coventry District Councils, and student volunteers.

She highlighted that the SU was also seeking to tackle the issue of students who have not found a group to live with, which she hoped would be resolved by running informal sessions for students who are searching for people to live with, and also for groups searching for an extra person. Whilst the event is “chiefly for first years” it is open to students from all years.

Although branded as “ineffective” in 2010, John felt that even if “five or six people come along and get good advice, it’s effective.” She added that students should always have their housing contract checked over by a member of the Advice Centre staff before they sign anything.