46 new housing opportunities are ready for the international students to move into, but neighbours have protested and the future is uncertain.
In the middle of central Lund, Lund municipality lets the university rent a retirement home to accomodate students immediately from Arrival day. However, for how long the students will have access to the housing is unsure.
The surrounding housing cooperatives have protested against the resolution made by the local builing commitee and now appeals to the county administrative board. A verdict is to be due within twelve months.
“The worries mostly concerns littering and objections that there are to many students in the area”, says Sara van Lunteren at the university’s housing department, LU Accommodation.
Meanwhile, the municipality’s real-estate company, LKF, lets the premises to LU Accommodation.
“The housings are reserved for international students, but in case there will be places left, we can let them to Swedish students as well”, says Sara van Lunteren at LU Accommodation.
In addition to the retirement home of Brunnsbo, LKF has let the university an old short-time accommodation with 29 places, situated on Margaretavägen , Lund. The university’s able to rent the housings on five or two and a half years basis.
“We want to make sure that we surmount the bulge when many people born in the 90’s enter university, and this requires quick access to accommodation”, says Sara van Lunteren.
“This is a success we have seeked a long time”, says student life coordinator at Lund municipality, Susanna Hansson.
“It has worked out just because of the fact that we have searched for vacancies at all public administrations, something that has not been done likewise before.”
Håkan Ekelund at LKF says that there, for many years, have been plans on turning the retirement home into a sheltered accommodation for elderly people. However, the project plan has not been completed, and this enables the university to rent the premises meanwhile.
“At the same time, it is good that we can contribute with housing to students during a couple of tiresome years”, says Håkan Ekelund.
Translation: Anna Bergvall
