Shouldering their housing risks alone

Students: school lacking support for those seeking housing

By PALAK KLAIRE

With no campus housing nor college website to help find housing, many Langara students find they are forking out more rent than they can afford or living far from campus.

While BCIT and KPU offer offcampus housing communication platforms for student-to-student housing options, this same kind of information is unavailable on Langara’s website, frustrating many who come from abroad or outside the city.

“It’s really hard to find accommodation,” said Ekroop Kaur who studies web and mobile development at Langara. “Being a student you have to take care of many things; it should be in (your) budget.”

Reba Noel, the manager of student engagement at Langara said the demand to provide this kind of information on the website is not high enough.

“Personally and professionally I would refer people to UBC’s site because that encompasses a close geographic area,” said Noel, adding that students must ensure online housing advertisements are reliable, and that safety and security of students must be a priority.

Many Langara students look for accommodations on third-party websites.

“There are some greats risks about that,” said Noel. “When you go about that kind of service you have to make sure there are mechanism or practices in place where you can mitigate with that risk.”

Using websites or social media to find rental accommodations is a great way to connect people, but they can also be a hotspot for fraud, according to the Langara Student Union Internal Vice President, Keshav Rai.

“Sometimes finding a place to stay without knowing about it isn’t safe,”

Rai said.

On the BCIT website a disclaimer says they do not “assume any responsibility for agreements made between the student and the landlord.” The site also states they do not “screen, inspect, warrant or approve,” any agreements or accommodations.

“There are other ways students can find a trustworthy place when it comes to shared and affordable accommodations, said Himanshu Gautam, a student-elected member of the Langara College Board of Governors.

“Some of my friends have pages on Instagram, where they provide information about jobs and accommodation,” Gautam said.

Punjabi Market revamp taking too long

Motion has yet to show improvements or increase foot traffic

 By HENRI NGIMBIS

Punjabi Market venders in Vancouver are migrating to Surrey on account of better business opportunities, leaving the culturally unique South Vancouver area fighting for its existence.

In an effort to revitalize the epicenter of the city’s South Asian community, Councillor Pete Fry successfully passed a motion entitled, Punjabi Market at Fifty: Celebrating the Past and Planning for the Future in June 2019.

“I know that things have really started to slide and deteriorate. We’ve lost a lot of that cultural component,” Fry said. Shops that have left the Punjabi

Market are being replaced by franchises such as Tim Hortons and Freshii Inc. Shop owners say they have fewer customers than before and are struggling to keep their businesses alive.

"Many Indian families have moved to Surrey where Indians have opened new shops,” said Inderit Bunwait, part owner of Amrit Fashions. “In addition, charges over here are becoming very expensive,” he added.

Others simply lament the loss of the neighbourhood’s rich history.

“It is true that when the Punjabi Market opened 50 years ago, there were mainly food and clothes stores for Indian customers,” said Harinder Toor, who opened the Punjab Food Center in 1981.

Toor said customers visiting the neighbourhood’s new franchises aren’t shopping the older shops that still remain in the market.

“Many Indians used to live over here. This market was the first to open in the whole B.C.”

In order to help the market survive, the proposal of the India Gate was first introduced by the Gordon Campbell administration in 2008. To this date, it has not been executed. Since then, residents find themselves betrayed by politicians.

Section 6 of the, Punjabi Market at 50, motion states that; new construction and residential development has the potential to transform the area.

Pardeep Kohli, owner of Kohli Men Hair Stylist Ltd and Kohli's Mastercuts Hairstyles said with or without the government’s help he remains optimistic about the future of the market and sees the city with a mentality of globalization which is a quickly changing city.

“The city administration thinks of bringing back customers over here by modernizing the infrastructure around the market. But it takes too long,” said Kohli.

“We have more and more mixed communities than before with new business ambitions,” Kohli said.

Two new kiosks installed to improve wait times at Langara’s Tim Hortons, have left some waiting.

Chartwells, the company that manages the food services at Langara, worked with the college to install two Tim Horton’s self-serve kiosks in an attempt to alleviate long lineups. The units became functional at the end of August.

Langara student Nabi Akhtar, who frequents the kiosks, said one has often been out of service and is semi-satisfied with wait times.

“There could be some improvements, especially if they fixed the other kiosk,” Akhtar said.

Anh Nguyen ACCOUNTING STUDENT

Rizwan Bandali, Chartwells’ Food Services Director, said they have keys to open the kiosk and do a reboot. If a reboot doesn’t correct the error, the next step is to contact SyCom Technologies, a third-party tech support company, to troubleshoot.

Anh Nguyen, an accounting student, who for the past two weeks has exclusively used the kiosks, said she is happy overall with the shortened wait time.

In regards to lining up for the counter, “I don’t want to waste my time,” Nguyen said.

Eva Hartkopf, a women studies student, said she believes many customers don’t use them because they simply don’t know about them.

According to Mark Adams, director of ancillary services at Langara, two locations were considered for the kiosks. They chose the current location due to cable and network connections and avoiding potential hallways congestion issues. For customers not wanting to use the kiosks or stand in line to order from the counter, there is another option. Tim Hortons launched their own App for mobile purchasing in July 2017, which can also be used for pickup orders at Langara.

TIMBITS OF TRUTH

» Swimming in coffee

Canadians drink more than 14 billion cups of coffe a year. Enough to fill more than half of Lake Superior.

» Top of the world, Ma

Tim Hortons remains at the top of Canadian's fast food chain, outselling every other fast food restuarant!

» The regular, please "Double Double" is so entrenched in our language, it officially was added to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary

SOURCE: NEWS OUTLETS