2023-09-25 09:13:00
Find comfortable accommodation, at a reasonable price, and in the green: like Perrine Dumuret, installed in the old stable of a farm, students now opt for “green campus” accommodation, a formula born in Pas-de-France. Calais and which also appeals to the agricultural world.
In professional baccalaureate in Personal Services in the peri-urban town of Aire-sur-la-Lys (Pas-de Calais), Perrine Dumuret, 18, has just returned to school at the “Ferme des 3 pomme” in Bourecq .
She has “always lived” in the countryside and wanted to avoid “the city and its numerous traffic”, she explains, as a tractor pulls into the farmyard where her windows overlook.
Financial considerations also played a role: on one level, his furnished 38m² one-bedroom apartment – where a large cage houses his rabbit – costs him 350 euros. The equivalent in Aire-sur-la-Lys would be “around 450-500 euros at least”.
To reach her high school, however, she must drive 15 minutes. But “in any case, I would need a car for my work”, a work-study program in a micro-crèche, she puts things into perspective.
She also appreciates being able to obtain supplies directly from the distributor of fresh produce, cauliflower, salads, tomatoes… installed by her owners at the farm gate.
His neighbor on this potato farm, Théo Delplace, 21, enrolled at the Biotech high school in Douai, also has to travel miles to take his classes and ensure his work-study program.
But he compensates for this “overflow” spent on gasoline, “on comfort of life” in the 50m2 that he rents for 369 euros.
“We have more freedom. I can accommodate my girlfriend, which I might not be able to do in a smaller home,” he explains.
– “A win-win concept”-
According to its director Odile Colin, the Campus Vert association today offers 500 accommodations to students or young people on apprenticeship or professional contracts – including 450 in Hauts-de-France -, which welcome 800 tenants each year.
Rents are “30% cheaper than the average city market,” she says. With the shortage of student accommodation and inflation, “in 2022 we were at 3,200 requests over a year and today we are at more than 3,500 even though we have not finished the year,” says She.
The association was founded in 1995 by three farmers from Béthune, keen to diversify their activities by taking advantage of the decentralization of universities.
“It’s a win-win concept both for farmers who promote built heritage and for students who are offered quality housing,” explains Ms. Colin.
A “heritage for living”
Owner of the “Ferme des 3 pomme”, Catherine de Saint-Laurent joined the network in 2005, investing with her partner 70,000 euros to set up four accommodations in an old stable.
While at the back of the yard machines are washing and bagging the potatoes, she is pleased with a good “return on investment”, with “nearly 1,300 euros in rent per month”.
Especially from the perspective of retirement, when agricultural pensions are “close to not much”. “We will only have our heritage to live on,” says this fifty-year-old.
At the beginning of September, the couple opened three new homes in a former workshop, supported by aid from the Region and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
This farmer also highlights “the social bond” created on a daily basis in this village of 600 inhabitants with the young people accommodated, “who regularly come for an aperitif”.
If it was “just to collect rent, we wouldn’t have done that here. We buy accommodation in town, people rent, they pay and we don’t know each other.”
“It’s also important that the young people who come to us understand our profession,” she adds.
09/25/2023 09:12:08 – Bourecq (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
#green #air #costs