Mould in the corner of a window. Photo: 123RF
Students at the University of Otago say with the lack of jobs in the city, climbing rent prices and cost of power, they are struggling to make ends meet.
The situation has gotten so bad, some are even leaving their flats altogether to move into vans and cars to sleep.
The student association said a recent survey showed some students were resorting to sleeping rough.
Milly Holmes and Scarlett Treadwell live with seven girls in a flat called 'Fridgette'. They pay $220 each a week on rent.
Each week they take out the maximum amount of student loan living costs of just over $320 and once they pay rent, they are left with $100 for the week.
Holmes had been looking for a part-time job to help keep her costs down. She said looking for a job was tough in Dunedin.
"I have applied for quite a few and just all of them, no luck. You can even see on the applications, it's like '3000 have applied for this job'.
Although the flat 'Fridgette' lives up to its name - you can see your breath - Homes said it was one of the nicer flats in the student quarter.
She said if you wanted to live closer to university, you had to live in an older and run-down house.
"Not the best flats or living situations, but if you do want to be on Castle Street or Leith Street, that is what you have to pay.
"Next year we are paying same price for - or even less - for a much nicer place just because it is a bit further out."
Second-year students Ethan Reudland and Edward Lawrance paid $250 a week for their four-man flat on Forth Street.
Reudland said getting hold of a flat last year was challenging, so they took what they could get, despite the price.
"We just kept on getting rejected and rejected and rejected from all the flats we were applying for - we applied for 25 to 30 flats."
Reudland said the flat had high ceilings and was damp, so they were often having to fork out more for their power bill.
"Four-hundred and fifty dollars a month, it can get quite high, but that is our WiFi as well."
Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) president Liam White said one of the biggest issues for students was the cost of living.
"For a student who is largely on a fixed income, $330 a week, that rent is two-thirds of their income.
"That is shocking, that is the expectation we have for students. And then the other $100 is supposed to be groceries, and that does not get you very far. "
White said students were not getting what they paid for in flats.
"When I started flatting here in 2022, a good flat was $180, $150 for your average flat. Now, the average flat is $180, $210, $250, they are ridiculously expensive here.
"The flats haven't improved at all, they are exactly the same aging housing stock, and yet we are paying an arm and a leg."
White said some students had even resorted to sleeping in their cars and were buying vans in order to keep weekly costs down.
He said in a survey by the University of Otago and the OUSA that spoke to 6500 students, 200 said they had slept rough for a week or longer.
"I have got mates who are buying vans, leaving their flats just to move into a van. It is cold in Dunedin - that is not an acceptable way for someone to live.
"Unless they are doing a road trip around the country, that is different, but for someone who is studying in a fixed place, for a fixed period of time and they cannot afford the rent we are being asked to pay, that is completely unacceptable."
White said the university provided short-term emergency housing for a couple of weeks, but there were few options for students long-term.
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