Students face increased responsibility with off-campus housing

Moving into one's own apartment can be a special time for most college students. Many students say they feel excitement about living independently and getting as far as they can from the dorms. Still, this excitement can cloud students' judgment, says one local official. \nCity Council member Tim Mayer said many students don't have the necessary experience to decide what they want in a rental unit or to make the proper decisions when choosing a home.\nDespite a progressive housing code that requires all rental property in Bloomington to be registered and inspected every few years, many students unfortunately get stuck with damaged living quarters. \nInterim Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development Sue Johnson said that in 2002, HAND received 3,156 complaints about rental properties, ranging from leaky roofs to overflowing toilets. \nDirector of Student Legal Services John Irvine said it is because of these continuing problems that he has proposed amendments to the Bloomington Housing Code, which will receive their first reading before the city council on April 2. \nHe said one reason students often get stuck with damaged properties is because many of the homes close to campus are older than the other rental properties and go through the most use. \nSenior Zach Weiner, claims insect infestation was a problem associated with one of his former properties.\n"After numerous complaints about a serious spider infestation, we were refused any sort of spray or pesticide," Weiner said. \nAnother renter, senior Priscilla Cherry, spoke out about a different infestation problem when a family of birds began living in her heating ducts. \n"When I told the management, they told me to wait out the nesting period," Cherry said. "Meanwhile, there are dead birds rotting in my ventilation."\nCherry said the Bloomington Health Department eventually told her leasing company they were in violation of health codes, and the problem was solved. \nThese violations are not only inconveniences to residents but can be health problems in many cases.\nDoctoral student Alexandre Eisenberg experienced one common result of older properties -- mold.\n"There was a lot of mold in the larger room's closet, and this was a very difficult thing to deal with because my wife has a lot of allergies," he said. "The health insurance would always return the money we spent on medical bills, but the hours that are spent at the health center are not worth it." \nEisenberg said maintenance discovered the problem was greater than expected, but it still was not corrected. \n"Then they went there and removed the carpet and found a huge colony of fungus beneath the carpet that was making the horrible odor," Eisenberg said. "So, they brought bleach and they cleaned all of it and put the carpet back and a month later all of it was back again." \nEisenberg's odoriferous problems did not stop at mold. At another property, he experienced additional health problems when cigarette smoke wafted into his home.\n"The apartment was so badly insulated that we would get all of the smoke from the neighbor beneath us would come into our apartment," he said. "We had to keep all of the windows open when it was freezing outside just so we could breathe."\nIn order to correct the problem, he contacted HAND to report the poor ventilation. To his dismay, he discovered such problems are not mentioned in the housing code.\n"I was very surprised that the woman who came to help me said they could do nothing," he said. "The woman was very impolite. She said there was no way to help us about it. I thought that if it is a health problem then there would be some provision in the local laws, but it looks like there isn't, so there would be no way to make them fix it."\nDue to the problem, his wife suffered many nose bleeds, causing her go to the Health Center often, Eisenberg said.\nJunior Lauren Felder said she had the same problems with cigarette smoke seeping through her neighbor's walls into her home.\n"My next door neighbor smoked and it was so heavy and I would get headaches," she said. "I'm a non-smoker. I've always been a non-smoker, and I'm very sensitive to cigarette smoke. Well, I have friends come over and ask me, 'Did you start smoking?'"\nOther problems can compromise residents' safety.\nCherry claimed her fire alarm did not function properly and was not remedied by management until quite some time. Weiner also noted his request for a fire extinguisher was denied.\nCedarview admits to experiencing some of these problems, but claims they have been corrected. \n"The fire extinguishers were to be recharged prior to releasing of the premises," Cedarview Legal Representative Michael Carmin said. "A temporary maintenance man was employed to prepare properties for occupancy by new tenants. Apparently the fire extinguisher was not recharged as was intended. The temporary maintenance man is no longer employed by Cedarview Management."\nToni Ott, who graduated this winter, said her window's lock was broken for months at her property, causing her to question her security.\n"I had to just put a long stick in the window because they never fixed the lock on it," she said.\nThroughout all these problems, there are ways for students to react to damaged property. \nAccording to the Student Legal Services Web site, students should keep a journal of the problems and their attempts at getting them repaired.\nJohnson suggests contacting management first, and then if requests are not being answered, to file a complaint with HAND.\nStill, with tricky leases and omissions in the housing code, such as ventilation, many of these problems seem impossible to rectify for many students.\n"In my country (Brazil), the law favors tenants," Eisenberg said. "Unfortunately, the laws aren't the same everywhere here in America."\nCheck out Wednesday's IDS for part two of the three-part series, in which landlord relations will be examined.