University of Virginia Library

Students Must Pay 'High Price'
For Severe Housing Shortage

By HOLLY SMITH

Gone are those grand old days of yore
when the only kind of Housing dilemma a
student might face was whether to take
the house with the dining room or the
one with the two car garage. They say
that's how it used to be; but in these days
of the emerging mega-University, students
are wisely starting, now, to look for
places to live next year.

A brief history of the availability of
housing at University helps to put this
year's housing crush in perspective. In
1968 the surplus of dorm space was so great the
Housing Department considered charging all
second year men a $50 deposit on all dorm
rooms, to be forfeited if the student decided to
live off Grounds.

Question of Responsibility

When asked by Council member Marya
McDermott if he did not consider it his
responsibility to see that all students admitted
to the University would also have sufficient
housing available to them, he replied that no,
he did not consider housing (beyond that of
first year students) his responsibility.

The role that the University would play in
the immediate future in seeing that its newly
increased student body was adequately housed

was made all to clear by Edgar F. Shannon,
President of the University, in a special Student
Council meeting last year.

In 1969 empty rooms still abounded in the
dorms, but by 1970 people were waiting in line,
some for as long as two days, to get dorm
rooms. Last year the Housing Department
resorted to a lottery system as the most
equitable way of distributing the limited
number of rooms and suites.

'Sellers Market'

Thus the current expansion in enrollment at
the University has brought with it a sellers
market in rental housing; a situation spawning
tales of renter woes that boggle the mind.

Students who entered the race for living
space too late in the year have resorted to
pitching tents in a friendly backyard, as several
boys are reported to have done, or crashing on
a friend's floor for a month or so until they
find a place to live which vaguely resembles the
type of accommodation they want.

The situation has not reached the point
where students have rolled out sleeping bags on
Carr's Hill. But it is critical in the sense that
rents have increased measurably and students
are dissuaded from asking for minimal
maintenance by the knowledge, on their part
and the part of the landlord, that they have
nowhere else to go.

Rents Increase

Even the Charlottesville realtors admit there
is a severe shortage of housing close to the
University, and for those houses or apartments
which are (or were) available, the rent for many
of them is unreasonable. "Some of these rental
here are out of this world" states Martin
Romanov, a Charlottesville realtor who has
watched houses that rented for $125 four years
ago rent for $250 the year. He reports that this
is hard on students, but even more difficult for
families who can't divide the rent between
several people.

Situation 'Tight'

Forrest Marshall, another realtor, explained
that the housing situation is "real tight". He
says "It was bad this summer before the
students came." Of his clients this fall he says:
"They were desperate-they took pretty much
everything."

The fact that "pretty much everything" is
gone is affirmed by other real estate firms. In a
spot check of realtors who deal with rental
property near the University it appears that
there is virtually nothing left. Think about it.
When was the last time you saw a "for rent"
sign anywhere close to the Grounds?"

Other Universities

Although the knowledge is hardly consoling,
if the truth be known the present
Charlottesville rents are still even with or
sometimes below the rent charged in most
college towns across the nation. At Dartmouth
College, a one bedroom furnished house goes
for $185 a month on the average. Virginia
Polytechnic Institute students pay at least $150
a month for a two bedroom furnished
apartment.

Some landlords in Charlottesville, already
charging as much as the market will bear, have
reportedly found other ways of milking more
money from clients.

Many students have reported that their $50
or $100 security deposits have been kept at the
end of the year by realtors who claim the
money is needed to pay for cleaning the
apartment or replacing damaged furniture.

Security Deposits

The students contend that they left the
apartment cleaner than they found it and that
the furniture was already damaged when they
took possession. The repairs the landlord
supposedly charges them for are often not
made.

In the next article in the series the other
side of the situation will be explored when the
position of Charlottesville landlords is
presented.