For a lot of people — because of faith, because of family, or simply because it is what they are comfortable with — sharing a suite with mixed company is the thing that makes shared housing a non-starter. It is rarely asked about directly, which is a shame, because here the answer is yes and it costs nothing.
What is actually on offer
Most suites in the building are mixed. A number of floors are kept single gender, and you can request one when you apply.
Two things worth being precise about, because vagueness here is how people end up disappointed. It is a request, not a guarantee: availability depends on the term, and a single-gender floor that is full in September is full. And it is a floor, not a building — the amenity floors, the laundry room and the lifts are shared by everyone.
Ask on the application, not at signing
This is the whole practical point of the article. The request belongs on the application form, at the same moment you tell us your schedule and sleeping hours.
Leave it until signing day and you are asking us to move you after placement has already been worked out, against whatever is free that week. Put it on the application and it is one of the inputs instead of a problem to solve later. Same with asking early in the term rather than late: October for a January start is a different conversation from December for a January start.
Why a floor and not just a suite
A fair question: if a suite has three bedrooms and they are all the same gender, what does the floor add?
Mostly it changes the corridor and the ordinary friction around it — who you pass on the way to the laundry, who is at the lift at seven in the morning, whose guests are in the hallway. For people who care about this, the suite is the half that gets advertised and the corridor is the half that actually determines whether they are comfortable.
If what you need is only the suite, say that instead — applying as a group of three takes care of it directly, and that route is covered in applying together or alone.
The rest of the matching still applies
A single-gender floor is one input among several, not a substitute for the others. If you apply alone you are placed by schedule, sleeping hours and whether you cook — in that order — and the floor request sits alongside that rather than overriding it.
Which is the right way round. Two people of the same gender on opposite shifts are a worse match than two people on the same schedule, and the thing that makes a suite workable day to day is usually hours rather than anything else. Rooms start at $220 a week either way.
More on roommates
- Sharing a kitchen
- Together or alone
- One bathroom, three people
- When a suitemate moves out
- Sharing with people on different schedules
