Tasnia Yasmin, VP Welfare and Community and Niall Berry, VP Activities and Development
We are aware of a range of issues students who live in King's accommodation and private housing may be facing due to the impact of Covid-19. Through our Forgotten Students campaign, we are hoping to provide solutions to students and ensure you are being supported by the Union and the College through any difficulties you may have.
By working alongside the College, we've managed to ensure students in King's accommodation were offered the option to cancel or delay their contracts if they need to, with no fees or negative financial impact. We also hosted a Q&A with King's to ensure students had a platform through which they could share concerns and receive answers to their questions.
We have been listening to your experiences in the private housing and accommodation sector, and we are looking at the different ways in which we can best support you. We have been actively working with Cut the Rent KCL to understand the issues and concerns students have currently in residences and what can be done to help resolve this. This includes looking at the training that residence security receive (such as mental health awareness, equality, diversity, and inclusion) as well as maintenance in halls and the timescale it takes to resolve them. Students currently do not feel satisfied and we hope to continually work with Cut the Rent and King’s Residences to ensure that students feel safe and comfortable in King’s halls.
We have worked with King's to write a letter addressed to private landlords, student accommodation providers, and letting agents, asking that they consider if whether they may be in a position to support our students in a similar way to King's Residences, by potentially offering rent rebates and rental discounts to students who have been unable to access their accommodation, as well as a no-fee contract cancellation of the property for the remainder of the academic year.
You can download the letter below.
Read or download the letter here!
Please get in touch with Niall or Tasnia if you want to share your experiences or get involved in the campaign!