Local Landlords & Senate Not Showing Signs of Settlement

Selecting a place to live can be stressful. It can become even more stressful when you are worried about beating someone to the punch. Everyone wants to get the best place to live, suiting them and their needs. Both the University and local landlords in Plymouth have been working together to try to achieve clarity on student housing. 

Local landlords understand the stress students face when finding housing and being college students in general, as most of them are PSU alumni. Inter-Lakes Properties and Stoppe Management Services have been renting out apartments to PSU students for nearly thirty years and counting.

It is important to note the differences of living on and off campus. Living on-campus students go through the selection process with Reslife. All full-time, first and second year students are required to live on campus if space is available. If you are an incoming student who is 19+ years of age or sophomore status or above, you are eligible to request housing in Langdon Woods or the University Apartments.

Most newly admitted students will reside in one of six traditional residence halls: Belknap, Blair, Geneva Smith, Grafton, Mary Lyon, or Pemigewasset.  On-campus Housing Selection takes place March 9 - April 10, 2014. Questions relating to housing availability and assignments should be directed to Kathy Peverly at kkpeverly@plymouth.edu. 

In order to live off-campus for the 2014 - 2015 academic year, a student must be at least 20 years old on or before 9/1/2014 or have earned 30 credits prior to the start of the Spring 2014 semester. 

There are roughly 30 different landlords to choose from around Plymouth, these listings can be found on the PSU Residential Life page under "Local Landlords." Stoppe Management, Inter-Lakes Properties, North Star Rentals, and Off Campus Rentals are just some examples of companies that offer off-campus apartments. There are also private landlords as well. 

The school and Student Senate have held meetings to discuss the student housing selection process for both on and off-campus housing.  The resolution currently in front of the Student Senate is opposing the actions of off-campus landlords. Off-campus landlords recently moved up the process, meaning students could begin selecting housing last semester. 

"This issue affects students by creating undue stress on them during one of the most stressful times of the year. Finals week and choosing housing for next year should have never mixed," said Alex Herbst, Student Body Vice President. 

"I don't think the timing was right at all this year, as far as having advertisements being posted up in December, that was a bit too early. I think students should have the right to focus on finals and not be worried about housing. There is time for that later," said Jeff Therrien, Property Manager for Inter-Lakes Properties. 

In some cases, it is simply the nature of the real estate business. When landlords advertise their apartments during the times they do, the rest are assumed to follow up with their available properties as well. 

"It creates sort of a snowball effect in a sense when that happens," said Therrien.

The two resolutions passed by the Student Senate encouraged ResLife and off-campus landlords to agree to move back the housing selection process for both on and off-campus until after spring break.  The proposed resolution was to have off-campus landlords support delaying the housing selection process closer to spring break to avoid stress during the final week of the fall semester (Mid February/March 1st were the suggested start dates). 

"The two resolutions proposed by Student Senate were to give people time to explore their options and not be rushed into signing a lease under pressure of that space not being available," said Evan Gaudette, USSB representative.   

This issue affects all students who are looking for a place to live here on-campus and off-campus.  "Reslife has decided to follow our resolution and will not start any housing selection until after spring break.  In past years they had an earlier time line for ResNorth due to the off campus landlords setting an early time line," said Gaudette.

As of this year, not one landlord has signed this proposed agreement with the school. "We believe their should be a free market where the students can choose when they want to sign up for housing and not have the crush of the 'starting date' pressure," said Arlene Stoppe, a Representative for Stoppe Management Services. 

To local landlords, the proposal seemed to be geared more towards an on-campus style of housing in comparison to the different nature of the off-campus housing process. "Students that want to live off-campus go through an entirely different process to pick their housing, so it shouldn't [in my opinion] be treated the same way," said junior Katlyn Hall. "Most apartments need to be toured through before you sign the lease, unlike dorms, where the school just places you in a room by their selection."

For any student that signs up for on-campus housing, the school has the right to put them in any room/apartment available.  They can also assign the students to live with someone that they don't know or haven't chosen for a roommate.  All dorm rooms are typically set up in the same layout as well, depending on the residence hall. 

"As an off-campus landlord, every single one of our apartments are different layouts.  That means we have to show every apartment separately.  We don't have a 'model' apartment to show.  We also rent to groups of friends.  We can't tell someone, 'you will be assigned a place to live with a person or people we assign to you,'" said Stoppe.

Some smaller landlord companies don't really need to attend these school/landlord meetings, nor do they have to sign resolutions due to their size, which can put them at a disadvantage or an advantage over other companies as far as their "start date" is considered. "The smaller landlords who did not sign the agreement started renting [fall] semester while all the bigger companies had to turn people away and not show them anything until almost mid February," said Stoppe.

Once more discussions take place about the student housing selection process between the school and local landlords a settlement will be reached. Until then, Student Senate and local landlords advise students to share their opinions on the matter and what they would like to do. "We hope that there will be a clear process and students will have the ability to make the best choice for themselves," said Gaudette.

The consensus at the Student Senate meeting was to wait and gather more information from students on the matter. The next Student Senate meeting will take place on Sun., Feb. 23. "We will be revisiting the resolution at the next meeting and [will] be looking into other ways to help show support, such as a letter signed by students," said Herbst. "I would highly encourage...students to attend our meeting this Sunday at 6 p.m. in the Student Senate Room. We will be discussing the matter further and trying to come to a conclusion at that meeting."