A pilot project at the University of Saskatchewan’s College Quarter has now become a permanent offering for 2SLGBTQ+ students.
Senior Coordinator of Student Life, Annie Johnson, explains that Queer Housing gives students the option of living with other queer students in an environment of support, complete with recreational and educational programming. She considers the pilot project in 2019-20 a success, other than everything shutting down when COVID-19 hit Saskatchewan. Enough so, that Queer Housing is back and Johnson says they already have more applications this year than they had last year.
The students live together in 4-bedroom apartments. Johnson couldn’t give specific numbers of how many apartments were utilized for Queer Housing for privacy reasons, but says there were several apartments involved in the program last fall and there will be at least one more this year.
This year’s programming will look a little different, Johnson says, because of the safety protocols around COVID-19, so there will be more virtual events. This year, there will also be a Queer Housing Lounge for the residents and for other self-identified Queer students in residence.
The hope was to have it ready to go for the fall, but the work had to be postponed because of the pandemic and the university closing, but Johnson expects it will open sometime in the fall term.
