A low vacancy rate combined with a lack of progress on legalizing secondary suites is making it difficult for Calgary post-secondary students to find safe, affordable rental accommodation, say student leaders.

“Calgary is an expensive city and it’s extremely hard for young people to find affordable housing,” said Erik Queenan, president of the Students’ Association of Mount Royal University.

Queenan said, anecdotally, it appears finding a rental suite in Calgary is easier than last year at this time — when the vacancy rate hovered around one per cent and displaced flood victims competed with students for scarce accommodation — but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

A spring rental market survey released in June by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. pegged Calgary’s vacancy rate in April 2014 as the worst among big Canadian cities at 1.4 per cent. Monthly average rents for a two-bedroom apartment were $1,267, according to the CMHC.

Darren Paddock, president of RentFaster.ca, said while there are more rental properties in Calgary now compared with previous years, the type of accommodations are different, and in many cases, students are being squeezed out.

“There’s more inventory but the inventory has changed ... We rarely see the lower-priced apartments that you used to see quite a bit of,” he said.

On-campus housing at the city’s post-secondary institutions is also difficult to find.

Mount Royal University has approximately 1,000 rooms in residence and, on Thursday, there were between 30 to 40 vacancies, a number that fluctuates on an hourly basis, according to the school’s director of residence services.

Kimmi Nguyen, SAIT Students’ Association vice-president academic, said the school’s residences, which have space for 1,172 students, are at 100 per cent capacity and there are 120 students on a wait list.

“There is quite a high demand for on-campus housing,” said Nguyen.

With demand also high off campus, student leaders from different institutions are working together to make a case for easing secondary suite zoning rules in Calgary.

The city has one of Canada’s most prohibitive zoning systems for suites, and students pressured candidates on the issue in last fall’s civic election.

“We are very adamant that the city recognize the illegal suites that currently exist to protect tenant rights,” Queenan said.

Queenan said student leaders are planning to meet with councillors to push forward the issue, which is scheduled to be discussed at council this fall, and plans are in the works to get fellow students involved.

Levi Nilson, University of Calgary Students’ Union vice-president external, said the association is working on an information campaign to get students up to speed on secondary suites.

“We do know that at the U of C, one-fifth of all renters are living in these secondary suites. We want to make sure that those people who are in the suites know that they have a lot of problems as far as legal rights go,” he said.

Nilson said he’s hearing from students that finding safe, affordable student housing in Calgary is “about as hard as it was last year.”

Statistics provided by RentFaster.ca, comparing August 2013 to August 2014, show an increase in the number of available units of all types, and an increase in average rents.