AH, MID-OCTOBER. The leaves are falling, the weather is changing, and you’re finally starting to get back into the rhythm of school. Odds are, you’ve already signed your lease for next year.
Just as you’ve begun to settle into your new apartment this year — you’ve found the perfect place to hang up those posters from the Student Bookstore, and you finally agreed on which shower curtain to use in the bathroom — the landlords are already asking if you’ll be back next year. When you sit down with your current or future roommates to discuss next year’s possibilities, everything seems to be up in the air. You’re not even sure if you like your apartment yet. Plus, you don’t know where you’ll be next year. What if you want to study abroad? Then you’ll be scrambling to find a sub-letter — maybe somebody you don’t even know.
As bothersome as leasing is for upperclassman, it’s even worse for new students. If you’re a first-year or a transfer student, you’re probably just starting to find your friends and get comfortable with yourself as a University student, but you may not have found your perfect niche yet. Plus, your social landscape is constantly changing and will be drastically altered if you choose to pledge a Greek organization or join a new club in the spring. Amid all this uncertainty, mere weeks into your college career, you’re being asked: Do you want to live in apartment? A house? On-grounds? Off-grounds? With whom? How much should it cost? Where should it be?
There’s no reason that any of us, first-years or otherwise, should need to have answers to these questions by October. “The housing rush is really an artificial one,” said Student Council president Matthew Schrimper. “The problem is mainly propagated by students. It’s a vicious cycle that we put ourselves through.” We feel pressure from our landlords and our peers to have it all figured out earlier and earlier every year — and why? The early leasing season may not be the biggest issue facing University students, but it is a stressful situation that’s entirely unnecessary and could easily be changed without harming anyone. Worries about finding roommates and studying abroad could easily be avoided if housing contracts were signed later, when plans for the coming school year are firmer.
This year, Student Council unveiled a new initiative called “Don’t Sign It!” which attempts to persuade students to hold off on signing apartment and house leases, pointing out that there are still dozens of unleased properties every spring semester. Representatives have visited first-year dorms, educating new students on their housing options and encouraging them to wait to enter into leasing contracts. Within three years, the initiative hopes to have students pledging to hold off on lease signing until later in the year.
Citing changes made at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin, Student Council has been in talks with the Charlottesville City Council to pass an ordinance that would prohibit landlords from advertising a unit until a certain number of days after the unit’s lease begins, effectively pushing back the dates that contracts become available to students. “We are managing our expectations,” warns Schrimper, who acknowledges the landlords’ concerns about their free-market rights. However, pushing back the leasing season won’t lessen demand — the demand will just come later.
The problem with student housing in Charlottesville is that demand far outweighs supply. Students who want to wait it out are all too aware that if they don’t grab that great four-bedroom apartment right away, someone else is right behind them in line. Rental companies don’t help by setting up poster boards in Newcomb Plaza on October 1 and warning about how they only have so many apartments left in their posh new complexes. Further exacerbating the issue is the fact that applications for on-Grounds accommodations are available as early as September, prompting students to sign early to maximize their chances of getting their first choice — creating the same rush that students signing off-Grounds leases experience. The University is forced to continually move the leasing date for on-Grounds housing up because of competition from off-Grounds housing.
Despite a 45 percent increase in the availability of off-Grounds housing in just the last three years, every October students are still scrambling to get the choicest apartments and houses, feeling pressure from their peers who are competing for the same spots. If the process is going to change, landlords must realize that offering leases in the spring semester instead of the fall won’t harm their business, and students must realize that waiting to sign a lease won’t leave them stranded miles from Grounds or homeless come next August.
Starting the housing rush just weeks into the school year puts an unnecessary burden on students who’ve only just gotten used to the nuances of this year’s housing. The early leasing season benefits no one and creates an atmosphere of competition and rivalry as students pick their housemates and start apartment-shopping. Starting the housing rush later in the school year would give students more time to weigh their options and make the best decision without harming business for the landlords, and the whole process would be changed for the better.
Michelle Lamont’s column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at m.lamont@cavalierdaily.com.
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