North Island College is holding a student housing information session on June 10, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Port Alberni campus. The event will introduce students to tul’al’txw, the college’s first on-campus student housing complex, which opened in September 2025 at the Comox Valley campus in Courtenay.
While the housing itself is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Port Alberni, the session offers local students a chance to learn what options might be available to them. Many Port Alberni students have struggled with the area’s tight rental market, where house prices have climbed 52 per cent since 2020 and rent has outpaced household incomes by 33 per cent. A housing needs report presented to council in December 2024 indicated the city would need more than 1,200 new housing units over the next five years.
tul’al’txw, which means “a house of learning” in the pentl’ach language of the K’ómoks First Nation, provides 217 beds in three buildings. There are studio apartments, shared units, and 60 beds in two-bedroom suites set aside for students with families. Monthly rents range from $980 per person for a quad unit to $2,200 for a family suite, with utilities and high-speed Wi-Fi included.
The $77-million project was funded mostly by the province, which contributed $75 million, while the college covered the remaining $2 million. It is the college’s first on-campus housing since its founding in 1975. The complex was built in partnership with the K’ómoks First Nation, and its design includes cultural elements from that collaboration.
Students who attend the June 10 session can get details about the application process, rental rates, unit types, and eligibility. The college encourages anyone who may need housing while studying at the Comox Valley campus or who just wants to understand their options to come by the Port Alberni campus that evening.
