The National Polytechnic University of Athens has, according to data from the institution, about 13,000 students. Its residences can accommodate approximately 9% of the institution’s student population. But this figure is far from reality, since, as the report of Lifo, many rooms are abandoned, while others are uninhabitable due to their very poor condition.
The home page of student residences presents another reality. “The rooms are equipped with a private bathroom and furniture (bed, mattress, wardrobe, desk, in some cases a library). They have heating and air conditioning, hot water, Internet. The majority of them are individual… Residents have the possibility of using a restaurant with a high standard of hygiene and aesthetics for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have reading rooms, recreation room with TV, board games, table tennis, basketball courts, tennis, amphitheater. The security of the premises is ensured 24 hours a day”, can we read.
It can only be irony.
The premises have never been known for their safety. The students who spoke to us reported regular incidents such as drug dealing, disputes between dealers and even the use of hostels for prostitution.
State inaction
At a time when the problem of student accommodation has worsened and when students coming to study in Athens are struggling to find apartments at affordable prices, in the heart of the Polytechnic University, the few rooms that exist in the residences are occupied by gangs and criminal groups. This situation is not new. State inaction has for years left students at the mercy of every gang, forcing them to self-organize even for the most part.
Funding for student housing is low, funds are mismanaged, forcing hostel residents to live in conditions that no human being deserves.
Gang occupation of residence halls is an open secret for the students who live there