TRU expects student housing needs to be met as West Gate dorms prepare for removal

Photo: Josh Dawson

Thompson Rivers Univesity's temporary camp-style, 113-bed West Gate dorms will be removed following the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in May.

Thompson Rivers University says it expects to have adequate housing for its students despite the removal of one of its residences, but officials are waiting to see how enrolment numbers shake out to determine the extent of housing demand.

While federal policy changes have caused TRU's new international enrolment to drop by hundreds in the fall and winter semesters and spurred the university to reduce spending by $20 million in next year's budget, the full force of the dramatic decline is expected to come to bear by the next fall semester.

TRU VP of finance and administration Matt Milovick said the university likely already has sufficient housing to handle its student population.

“It's kind of a wait and see," he said. "We know that we’re full through the summer, but come fall I think we’re going to end up with vacancies."

TRU’s temporary camp-style West Gate dorms, installed on an emergency basis in 2021, will be removed after being used as player accommodations during the upcoming National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in May.

'We can't afford it'

The removal of the 113-bed dorm is part of TRU’s plan to reduce spending by $20 million to balance next year’s budget, and will account for $700,000 in savings.

The City of Kamloops extended the university’s permit for the dorms in 2023, when TRU needed housing, but Milovick said the university hasn’t asked for another extension.

“Because we’re not going to need it — and quite honestly we can’t afford it,” Milovick said.

He said the university had operated the dorms at a loss to keep housing affordable for its students, but demand has declined and TRU now needs to cut costs.

"That's been our commitment over the last number of years, because we wanted to be good neighbours, we wanted to ensure that our students had housing," Milovick added.

New residential development?

He said the site of the West Gate dorms has been designated for a TRU Trust development, possibly a mixed-use building with market housing, but nothing has been decided yet.

Students currently housed in the West Gate dorms will have priority when applying to other TRU housing accommodations.

After the 148-bed Coyote Den residence opened on the east side of Summit Drive in 2023, TRU said the modular residence building was the first of a three-phase development plan that would see two more buildings erected.

Those plans appear to have stalled.

A funding request has been submitted to the province for the second 75-bed building, but Milovick said there’s been no word from the ministry so far.

“Right now, I don’t know that there’s a real urgency for new housing, with the change to our enrolment situation,” he said.