This platform helps students find home: “Problem is serious”

A DECO Protest announced, this Monday, the launch of the platform i want home. en, which aims to help students who need to seek accommodation outside their usual residence at a time when housing is experiencing a crisis: “The problem is serious, structural and affects thousands of families”.

Ao News to Minutes, DECO PROTESTE explained that entry into higher education has long ceased to be just a matter of choosing course and university”, since “finding suitable, available and affordable accommodation has become one of the biggest barriers to access to higher education“.

“ The offer of beds remains well below the needs, and the reality is unequal between regions: university residences, rooms, shared apartments or republics would vary a lot from municipality to municipality, forcing many students to look for solutions in scattered, informal or too expensive sources ", detailed the same source.

It therefore means that the “cost with housing is a determining factor in the decision to study outside“, so there are students who “choose less desired courses, but closer to home; they give up places for not finding accommodation; they make long and tiresome trips daily, which can compromise academic success; they often depend on informal, often unsafe solutions”.

“ A housing crisis is conditioning academic choices and limiting equal opportunities“, concludes the DECO PROTEST, stressing that the “family budget must consider the various costs associated with university attendance: transport, food, tuition, for example. The demand is difficult, fragmented and made in multiple channels, without centralized information”.

How can you help the new platform? 

The DECO PROTEST explains that the house. pt is a free platform, can be used by any person and “collect, in one space, reliable information about all student accommodation solutions available in the higher education institution or in the municipality”.

It also explains the organisation, distinguishes itself from those already on the market because: 

• centralises information that was previously dispersed among universities, SAS, municipal councils and other bodies;
• Includes two new tools dedicated to displaced students:
  – one with data collected from higher education institutions on its offer of accommodation;
  – Another with information from almost all Portuguese municipalities, showing residences, available rooms and support programs in each municipality.
• It allows comparing alternatives, knowing municipal programs, understanding priorities of access and identifying financial support;
• Helps to verify eligibility for support programmes such as Port 65 Young, accommodation supplements;
• It includes tax and legal information relevant to households, such as deductions from housing-related IRS;
• It will be updated whenever new data arises, ensuring current, reliable and useful information.

Five tips for students who have just been posted..

1. Start looking late;
2. To limit the demand to the municipality of the institution, ignoring nearby municipalities with good links that may be more accessible financially;
3. Do not compare the various solutions or accept the first proposal;
4. Disregard shared university residences or accommodation, which may be more economical;
5. Ignore available support such as accommodation supplements, support for displaced scholarship students or IRS deductions.

...and five mistakes to avoid

1. Start looking late;
2. To limit the demand to the municipality of the institution, ignoring nearby municipalities with good links that may be more accessible financially;
3. Do not compare the various solutions or accept the first proposal;
4. Disregard shared university residences or accommodation, which may be more economical;
5. Ignore available support such as accommodation supplements, support for displaced scholarship students or IRS deductions.