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Today’s young people are among the main victims of the housing crisis. Based on a study carried out at Forum du Logement Étudiant, a student housing forum, and on interviews, this paper explores the experience of students from the lower classes in Île-de-France (the metropolitan region of Paris) when leaving the parental home. What issues are they faced with when looking for housing and how does this search influence their academic lives and the way they perceive themselves in society ? For the students in question, accessing a decent residential position is a means to academic success, but the process is littered with obstacles. The private rental market is largely closed to them because of the modest economic resources of their parents and, sometimes, the lack of a guarantor. They also tend to rule themselves out of the sector, as they believe they do not have their place in it. Consequently, they set all their hopes on the social housing market. But there, too, the long waiting times and the support provided to them put them back in their “place”, i.e. a dominated position in the social space. And when they do find a housing solution, they sometimes struggle with the rent-related financial constraints. The situation has substantial repercussions on their academic achievements and, by contributing to their awareness of social inequalities, their relationship to society.