Durban - A FULL council meeting on Thursday finally adopted a policy to direct student accommodation around the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College and Westville campuses.
The policy seeks to have students accommodated closer to their respective campuses; provide management tools for the municipality to be able to better facilitate and manage the provision of private-sector student accommodation; ensure that the design of new student accommodation does not degrade the privacy and amenity of abutting residential land uses, and respects the existing character of the area; provide appropriate parking for student accommodation; and ensure student accommodation embodies principles of good urban design, sustainability, affordability and durability.
Multi-stakeholder consultations have been undertaken and now the policy will be advertised for comment.
Applicants would have to meet stringent criteria to set up student accommodation in the designated areas where the policy will be piloted.
The DA in eThekwini welcomed the “long overdue” policy.
The party said the policy’s success should be determined by the collective work of all relevant line departments.
DA councillor Marlaine Nair said this would bring relief to students who had fallen victims to unscrupulous property owners.
“Property owners would need to present a plan of how they will manage the accommodation and students.
“Essentially, the policy seeks to ensure that there is not just a proper building and conditions, but also management from the side of owners, and that students have access to transport, are near basic amenities facilities and to the university,” she said.
Janus Horn of the community police sub-forum which covers Manor Gardens, said, in principle, the policy was a good idea, but questioned how all the houses accommodating students would be policed.
“In Manor Gardens we have over 62 establishments listed as student accommodation and we know of 120 such houses in total.
“I have been asking about progress on this policy from the city for some time,” said Horn.
The IFP’s Mdu Nkosi said not having the policy gave a bad impression of the eThekwini Metro, which had many universities and TVET colleges.
“People have been exploiting students for far too long and now it’s time for that to stop,” Nkosi said.