In the SFS report, cities are assigned different color markings based on how soon students can be offered housing. A green mark means that new students on average receive a first-hand contract within a month, a yellow one sometime during the autumn term, and a red mark means that such a thing cannot be guaranteed during the first half of the year.
Where it looks brightest in the county is Skellefteå, which will continue to be green-marked in 2019. On the other side of the color spectrum is Umeå, which is once again red-listed.
- What it gives for signals is that it is difficult to get a living here and on average the students have to wait up to 1.5-2 years for a living, says Hanna Lundin Jernberg, president of the Umeå student union.
Joel Nordquist is one of the students who actually managed to redeem housing for the fall, but in order not to become homeless he has had to pay rent since last spring. Hear more about his situation in the clip above.