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Simon Fraser University, which has been battling to repair poorly maintained buildings at its Arthur Erickson-designed Burnaby Mountain campus, has given up on one of them, the 60-unit Louis Riel House student-family residence.
Conceding that a long-term lack of maintenance had doomed the 50-year old building, the university announced Tuesday it had given tenants notice it will permanently close the building at the end of August when leases expire.
That may solve one small problem on the campus, where 80 per cent of its buildings are classified as in either poor or fair shape. But it creates major problems for 20 low-income students with families and 40 mature single students who must find accommodation in a marketplace where virtually none exists.
For Monika Arora, the news couldn鈥檛 come at a worse time. She鈥檚 in the third year of her studies for a PhD in physics. The housing is close to affordable child care and schooling.
鈥淎t this point, I have no choice. I am going to have to quit if I have to go somewhere else,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 decided to do my PhD because I knew we would have housing, child care, schooling and my office all at one place. I won鈥檛 be able to take care of my kid and do my research.鈥�
Undergraduate student Teresa Dettling is a single mother. 鈥淟ouis Riel House is the only housing on campus I can afford. And without this community on campus, I don鈥檛 know how to make it work.鈥�
Rhiannon Tschirhart is an undergraduate with two young children who is trying to complete a degree in criminology. She just qualified for postgraduate honours placement but said she will have to give that up if she loses her housing.
鈥淚 am really scared. It is very short planning, and there is no way we could afford anywhere else,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e pay $991 a month, and even that is a struggle because my husband is from the United States and until recently was not allowed to work in Canada. We have no savings.鈥�
The closure comes despite recent efforts by SFU to repair many of its neglected buildings. In 2011, a report found 53 per cent of the campus鈥檚 buildings are in poor condition, while another 27 per cent are in fair condition. It reported that SFU had accumulated $717 million in deferred maintenance on its buildings and utility systems.
At the time Pat Hibbitts, the vice-president of finance and administration, played down the figure and said a realistic repair cost was about $150 million. On Tuesday, she said that figure had grown to about $200 million.
The university has been trying to catch up. It recently began a 30-year plan to divert $1 million annually from its $460 million operating budget into maintenance. It has also spent $55 million since 2013 in repairs, much of it though provincial and federal grants. The province, which had cut its annual $6.6 million capital allowance for SFU maintenance to just $500,000 in 2011, has bumped it back up to $2.2 million, Hibbitts said.
That鈥檚 still not enough, she said, but coupled with the diversions from the operating budget, SFU has started to repair the worst off buildings.
She said Louis Riel House 鈥渉ad reached the end of its useful life鈥� but acknowledged that was because the university had failed to properly maintain it. 鈥淭hat would be a fair description,鈥� she said.
In its announcement that it was closing the residence, the university said it was concerned about the well-being of the students. 鈥淕iven ongoing concerns with the structure and indoor air quality at Louis Riel House Residence, and following a recent assessment that documented multiple concerns with indoor air quality, it is clear that the mechanical systems and building envelope are at the end of their life service,鈥� the university said in a press release.
The university has offered to help students find alternative accommodations, Hibbitts said, such as compiling lists of available accommodation.
Chardaye Bueckert, the president of the Simon Fraser Student Society, said the university has made an effort to fix some buildings with the money diverted from the operating budget. But she said that will come at the expense of future student programming.
鈥淚t is definitely not money that is going into classrooms. It is money going to repair them,鈥� she said.
Bueckert said the society is concerned about the loss of Louis Riel House.
鈥淭he SFSS has been aware of ongoing issues in the building for some time and has been engaging with the university administration on the issue since fall,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is fair to say that everyone struggles finding housing in the Lower Mainland. But I think for these students specifically it will be a challenge because to our knowledge there is no other family housing available on campus.鈥�
Bueckert said the province鈥檚 increase in capital maintenance funds is welcome but not enough. 鈥淭he problem of deferred maintenance has occurred because of funding cuts from the provincial government for maintenance,鈥� she said. 鈥�(The money) is very helpful and welcome, but it is not enough to meet the deferred maintenance needs, which are estimated at $20 million a year.鈥�
Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson wasn鈥檛 available for an interview. But in an email from his staff he said the university 鈥渋s responsible for managing its resources including student housing.鈥�
It noted that since 2001 the ministry has handed out $776 million in capital and facilities maintenance to B.C.鈥檚 post-secondary institutions, including $64.5 million to SFU.
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