Accommodation Trust Craps Out.

Victoria, with its acute accommodation problems, doesn't look like it can call on many NZUSA constituents for support. A meeting of association Presidents in Hamilton in February which was called to discuss student accommodation throughout New Zealand was attended by only three presidents - Vic's Graeme Collins, Canterbury's Dave Caygill and Waikato's Chris Horton - with one exec observer from Massey Discussion centred on proposals for an accommodation trust, which would seek to provide accommodation specifically for students within the normal letting framework. The trust had been intended to acquire existing properties near a university, normally flats and houses, by buying them on the open market and then letting them to students. In later years with the consolidation of the trust, it had been intended to develop properties expressly for student use, in the form of student flats or villages.

The emphasis in the discussions was on the immediate setting up of such a trust with a solid financial and legal basis, but despite Victoria's plea for urgency it was decided to leave the question on whether to proceed on a national level until the Presidents meet again at Easter Council in Dunedin There seemed little hope that the trust could be set up on any but a national basis because of the amounts of money involved, even though this would mean a greater demand on funds. The greatest shortage at present is here at Victoria, and so our interest is essentially self-interest. But in four years the problem will be greatest at Albany, and it would be they who would then be benefiting from any trust organisation.

Victoria seems now to be left to solve its immediate problems on its own.