By Ann Chin
Students looking for a deal on rent from the Boston City Council should hang onto their lottery numbers. A rent control plan proposed by the City Council would give landlords state tax breaks if they lower rents. The plan, however, proposed in January, only targets low and moderate-income families, not college students living outside of university dormitories.
City Councilor Rob Consalvo proposed the legislation so working families could find affordable housing. Massachusetts is the only state that lost 3.2 percent of its population last year, and Consalvo said a main contributing factor is the state of real estate prices in Boston, which have risen every year for the past 10 years.
College students actually take affordable housing from families, Consalvo said. To combat this, the university should build more residence halls and keep the students on campus, he said.
However, off-campus housing offers advantages which lure many students away from West Village or Davenport Commons.
Ashley Flynn, who lives on Symphony Road, said some students want to experience a greater sense of freedom than on-campus housing can provide.
“I moved off campus because I wanted more independence than living in a dorm could give me,” the junior nursing major said. “I could be guaranteed to live with the people I wanted to in a place we chose.”
Others said the rituals accompanying the cycle of on-campus living can become overwhelming.
“I got tired of having to sign in guests, moving in and out every year,” said Rob Hoyt, a middler psychology major who lives on Mission Hill, “and being asked to pay an extra couple hundred dollars to be allowed to stay on campus for an extra week.”
In the past few years, Northeastern has poured millions of dollars and put forth an unprecedented effort to keep students on campus. In 1998, less than 30 percent of the approximately 12,460 undergraduates lived on campus, versus the approximately 50 percent who reside in university housing today, said Associate Dean of Housing Services Marina Iannalfo.
“We are always moving toward a higher percentage of students living on campus,” Iannalfo said. “[We] currently are working with city officials to continue the building boom and further satisfy housing demands.”
No matter how hard Northeastern pushes to keep students on campus, there will always be students living in the neighborhoods surrounding the university, just as Boston University students will always make up a percentage of residents in Allston and Brighton, Iannalfo said.
Consalvo said the goal of his proposed legislation is to help longtime Boston residents who have contributed to the city be able to continue to afford to live in the neighborhood of their choice for years to come. Although college students contribute a significant amount to the community as well, most leave the city after four years, Consalvo said.
Even though college students are temporary residents, they make up a large percentage of the Boston population, and some students said they feel that is enough to warrant more attention from government officials.
Consalvo said he was willing to look into the housing issue for students, but his focus will remain on aiding longtime Massachusetts residents. However, this piece of legislation will not solve all current economic housing issues, he said.
“We need a multifaceted approach,” Consalvo said. “This is just one small way to help.”
As for deciding whether to live on or off campus, some students are certain where they will end up.
“I’m staying off campus because you couldn’t pay me to move back on,” Hoyt said.
