The Impact of College Student Housing
The Times-Dispatch is reports a growing tension among residents in Randolph. The neighborhood’s reputation as a relatively quiet place to live seems to be changing as VCU students make up a larger percentage of the community. At issue is the sometimes inconsiderate behavior that represents students’ short-term interest in a neighborhood’s well-being.
Michael Paul Williams reports:
Richmond’s Randolph neighborhood survived being cut in two by the Downtown Expressway during the 1970s.
It weathered a period of crime and blight to become a model mixed-income community of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
But some longtime homeowners who were part of this revitalization are wondering if they’ll be able to endure an influx of hard-partying, occasionally abusive Virginia Commonwealth University students.
Randolph, an area bounded by the expressway, Meadow Street, Colorado Avenue and Harrison Street, has become a rental haven for students living in what were built as single-family homes.
Longtime Randolph residents say their community is at a crossroads.
Although the conflict seems to be largely between renters and homeowners, VCU students also live off campus in homes purchased for them by their parents, and likewise, many peace-loving renters are non-students. There are plenty of exceptions to the trend highlighted in the story. Some students can be great neighbors, while non-students aren’t always on their best behavior. However, the issue of partying students is long-standing., and it exists in many neighborhoods surrounding VCU.
Whether you’re in Randolph, Byrd Park, Maymont, or the Fan, please chime in with your ideas, suggestions, or solutions concerning this issue. (also, if you or anyone you know would be willing to contribute Randolph or Maymont-focused stories to this site, please let us know at info (at) byrdpark.net)
From @ladypaige on Twitter:
“dont mean to sound harsh, but…move to the west end or short pump if its really that big of a deal. #justsayn”
So, Jason, are you going to be moving to Short Pump, since that is the response so far?
I agree with you that not all college students make bad neighbors- some make great neighbors. But when you get these ones that think you are the problem for asking them to turn down their music and stop urinating in your yard before you call the cops….you have to wonder about the future.
Im an Oregon Hill resident..
Student parties are a problem here too. I am starting to see a trend though, and i think it is a positive one. Many of the houses on my block were purchased by parents for their VCU student children. For maybe a year or so, they go bonkers. Loud parties… bad upkeep etc… but then they seem to start to “get it”
They build relationships with neighbors, they gain some life experience, they get woken up at 3 am by partiers, and they seem to settle down into the neighborhood. Many have stayed long after graduation and have become friends and quality neighbors. Who knows what will happen when and if they leave, but……The consistent problem houses on my block are rented… high turnover, no respect or investment in the neighborhood, loud, messy and obnoxious. For these issues I think the blame should land squarely on the landlord. They should be fined by community development, they should be fined by the police, they should seek out better tenants. (there are literally thousands of fantastic responsible respectable students at vcu. Take my lovely neighbors for example, all students. We share a wall. For the most part, the problem houses on my block are not occupied by vcu students. They are college age, but not in college, here for the “scene”
Im glad we have a “scene” but Im not glad we have slumlords with zero accountability or seeming care for their neighbors happyness.
Community development wrote me tickets this past summer for weeds in the alley and an unregistered vehicle, why cant they work on weekends(one person on call) and fine landlords/owners for parties? or messes, or recycling out all week every week…
and to laidypaige… really? thats your solution? move. brilliant.
It could be worse…
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/396/1-Party-School
No, I’m not moving (and I’m generally a @ladypaige fan – in case yall are wondering). This issue isn’t actually a high priority for me, personally, but I can understand how certain blocks in certain neighborhoods are having a hard time reconciling incompatible attitudes about how to live/behave in and around a home.
Neighborhoods change over time. That’s unavoidable, especially with VCU’s expansion. But, I don’t think anyone wants communities that are completely dominated by the developers and absentee landlords that turn Richmond’s neighborhoods into off-campus student housing. I don’t know how to intervene in that situation, but it’s important to note.
I think part of the problem is that no matter how short or long your stay is going to be in a neighborhood, it’s still important to make connection and establish communication. You don’t want to spend months not making eye contact with neighbors and not knowing anyone’s name until the day you’re knocking on each others’ door to complain about something or leaving a note on their car.
I think the hostility (that goes both ways) can be avoided with some familiarity – preferably early and often, but it’s never too late.
College kids mostly suck. I live above some on N Shields. Not even sure how many they’ve got crammed down there but it’s far more than the number of bedrooms. They’re about the worst neighbors you could ask for. They play their music loud, they’re always hanging around, they never shut the fuck up, and they have at least one dog. The music has, at least, calmed down since the last time I called the cops on them. I think the cops told them they’d get an official summons the next time as they’ve been called on multiple occasions since October when they moved in.
Anybody ever try to ask a skateboarder to stop smackin’ their board on the sidewalk at 3:00 AM?
I think it has less to do with the fact that they are “college kids” and more to do with the fact that they are young. Young people can be irresponsible. While I understand the frustration, I think simply calling the police breeds enmity and should be avoided through neighborly interaction and only used as a last ditch effort.
I’m probably just reiterating what others have said, but it’s an unfortunate by-product of living in a city with a huge college age population. Of course I don’t agree that people should have to move to avoid this, but it’s part and parcel with the area. It’s not going to go away, and VCU is going to keep expanding whether we like it or not. I think those of us that have lived in these neighborhoods for a long time should be held a little responsible for setting up a dialogue with new neighbors or the division will just widen. Too often the first solution is just to ring the RPD and let others handle it.
Also, I agree that landlords should be held accountable for their tenants actions. But the number of renters in the area is only going to increase with the housing bubble burst and the sheer number of students that require housing.
well i will speak as a vcu student then and say that i am a fantastic neighbor…now. i wasn’t always. but i did live in housing really really close to the campus in big college-y buildings. i moved out to park and rowland this year because i couldn’t handle being kept up all night by noisy neighbors (and when i lived in carver, drunken people yelling outside my window and gunshots in the middle of the night ughh). i’m doing my student teaching right now and i am off to school at 6:30 so i know what it is like to be annoyed by neighbors who keep you up all night and having to work all day after.
having been on both sides, i think that the landlords further away from campus need to be more conscious of who they are renting to and the concerns of the neighbors. i also think the students in their first few years of college who have yet to learn the responsibility and consideration that neighborhood living requires, need to be urged to live in the apartment buildings full of other students which are close to campus. this is not a problem that will be solved anytime soon.
unfortunately also, now that i am about to graduate and am looking for a nice quiet place to move in with my boyfriend, i am learning how filthy college students can terrorize the beautiful historic homes in richmond! we have seen a parade of filthy carpets, baseboards black with dirt and kitchen floors that i wouldn’t dare step on barefoot! If landlords do choose to rent to slovenly tenants, then it is their responsibility not to return the security deposit and get some serious cleaning done!
and one last thing. it is important for you lovely neighbors of college students to go over there and introduce yourselves. invite them over for dinner or a cook out and make sure they know that you are kind and will treat them kindly if you treat them that way. in the past, neighbors who have complained about parties i had were always neighbors who i would say hi to everyday who wouldn’t give me a smile or even a passing glance. i was less likely to be considerate of rude people than my current neighbors whom i know and invite to every gathering i am having so i know they are a.)aware that there will be some noise and b.) able to partake and get to know my friends as well so they don’t think they are heathens. sure it isn’t mature to be inconsiderate of someone else because they are inconsiderate of you, but i was young. and so are your noisy neighbors.
oh and uhh…any cute houses in the byrd park area for rent looking for a quiet young professional couple? : )
Lindsey, I know someone who has an apartment to rent. Email me and I can set you up. mntwmyn@yahoo.com
In case anyone missed the video:
I used to live in one of “those” houses on South Allen Avenue, and can say that for the most part, we were always good neigbors, and our neighbors were nice to us.
Our next door neighbors were college age and used to have parties and clog the too narrow roads with their cars. Althought they never got out of hand. I had my driver’s side mirror hit a couple of times, but that’s a function of poor planning not partying.
A couple of the local’s parties were far rowdier and had police show. Not to mention the crack house just down the street as you go towards Byrd Park. I always had to walk my fiance in in the evenings.
Young men with nothing to do but sit on the street corner with their shirts off leaning into stopped cars concerned me more than a few college parties ever did. If you ask me, if you live in an area that close to VCU with affordable housing you were bound to have student neighbors.
Also, I’ve noticed quite a few of the houses that belonged to the adults were already falling apart after 10 years or so.
Good points made by several folks. As a resident of Randolph I can say that most of my neighbors bought their homes long before the major influx of students to the neighborhood. As more developers met with our civic assoc. we expressed our concern with the potential abuse of weak proffers by investors interested only in renting the properties (students or not). We want to hold landlords accountable for renter behavior problems. We are keenly aware there are other challenges to Randolph quality of life, drug markets, listless youths on cornersm etc. But this no excuse or reason to accept loud parties and lude behaviors from college students working to better their lives. We want to engage our student renters as welcomed neighbors & have attempted to do so with mixed results. All we ask is that all renters bring the same level of respect to all of our neighborhoods they would expect in their parents neighborhoods back home.
My aunt lived in a duplex in the Fan in the 80s. Her next door neighbors were VCU students and would have parties late into the night and showed no respect for her. So, instead of calling the cops at 3 am, she’d call the landlord. It happened enough, and she called enough, that the landlord became more selective with who he rented to.
Get to know your neighbors! and get to know your neighbors’ landlords! I guess you could just call the cops whenever something bothers you, but that seems to be a response out of fear and/or laziness.
True, it does take more time and emotional energy to engage with people on your street, but for those of us who have made the conscious choice to live in the city (vs. the ‘burbs), isn’t that why we live here? To engage?
In other college towns, there are landlord licenses.
Too many problems at a property and the license gets pulled and the property can no longer be rented. Its a great way to hold Richmond’s numerous absentee landlords more accountable.
This could be another income source for the City that does not involve soaking existing resident homeowners.
In defense of landlords, it is hard to really get an idea of what a tenant is going to be like until they move in. Once you’ve got a bad tenant, it is extremely hard to evict them, impose fines, etc. And often bad tenants won’t pay the last (few) months rent because they know there’s not much you can do about it. Taking them to court is very costly and heavily tilted toward the tenants anyway.