Employee Housing Survey

Through the Campus Plan consultation process, issues relating to housing availability and costs were identified as high priorities for both employees and students on campus. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in rapid housing cost increases and very low availability for both rental and ownership housing. The ability to attain existing housing options close to campus is increasingly challenging for many UVic employees.

Other Canadian universities, such as UBC, have conducted regular studies on employee housing. This is the University of Victoria’s first assessment of employee housing, which is of increasing importance related to employee recruitment and retention.

Results of the study will be shared with the university executive and Board of Governors. The study will inform the university’s existing housing programs and will help identify new programs and opportunities related to employee housing. This will include exploring opportunities to use university lands to develop housing solutions and support commercial uses to increase the supply of housing in the region. The university will explore opportunities to support diverse forms of housing, complimentary commercial uses and opportunities to support Indigenous community uses and programs.

Key messages:

• We understand housing affordability and accessibility is a huge challenge across the region, which affects many of our students, faculty and staff;

• We’re the first employer in the region to undertake this work to recognize and employ a strategy for employee housing needs;

• The goal of the survey is to assess employee housing needs, availability, cost and preferences;

• Issues relating to housing availability and cost are high priorities for both employees and students on campus;

• We recognize that an assessment of employee housing is of increasing importance for employee recruitment and retention;

• The university is committed to exploring diverse forms of housing for both employees and students;

• Other universities in high priced markets, such as UBC and SFU, provide employee housing on campus.

Communications strategy:

A virtual survey will be created and distributed to all employment groups at UVic. The survey will be hosted on CitySpaces’ (company contracted to create the survey and compile the report afterwards) Survey Monkey account. Data is stored exclusively on Canadian servers to ensure privacy and data security is maintained. The survey invitation, reminders and findings will be distributed using UVic’s employee listserve.

All internal communications channels will be used to promote the survey as widely as possible.

Outreach to media via a media release or advisory will be considered as appropriate.

Please check out the designated Employee Housing Survey website for more information: https://www.uvic.ca/campusplanning/current-projects/employee-housing-survey/index.php