By Marc Larocque

Dozens of students in Mission Hill have recently rattled their neighbors. However, some civic leaders said the problems are more foundational.

Negligent or absentee landlords target students who may be too na’ve, timid or diverted to address problems with the state of their apartment, some students and administrators said.

Northeastern students and administrators saw this more than a month ago on move-in day, and the conditions persist today: broken blinds, stained carpets, moldy walls, no smoke alarms, missing floor tiles and, in a few cases, no running water.

For Mark Dunham and Caitlyn Keckeissen, moving into Mission Hill this semester was going to be their first time living off-campus.

“It was going to be really special,” said Dunham, a middler sociology major. “It was almost like we were starting a home together. We searched through Craigslist and then found a realty group close to campus.”

A few months before moving into their apartment, Dunham and Keckeissen said they were led by a real estate agent who helped them procure a Wait Street pad that seemed to be without damage. But from that point on, they said, the real estate agent was nowhere to be found, and other representatives for the property became abstruse or rude.

On Sept. 1, the couple was planning to shop for furniture, but when they tried to retrieve their apartment key, they were stalled in a long line of eager renters. Keckeissen’s parents planned to help establish their new apartment and prepare their first meal.

But instead, they saw mold, damage to the walls, ripped carpets, leaks in the ceiling and locks that had not been changed. Dunham said that day he woke the previous residents, whom had no apparent plans to move out, nor had been contacted by the property managers or owners.

During Student Turnover Weekend – when city departments were out in full force in the neighborhoods to handle problems people had with their new apartments – a total of 210 properties were identified for follow-up by the Inspectional Services Department (ISD), which was able to obtain the necessary information to allow the city to enforce a safety or sanitary regulation. Mission Hill had the most with 86, topping Fenway, Beacon Hill and Allston-Brighton. Five dwellings in Mission Hill were condemned or scheduled for condemnation hearings – only two others were condemned, in Allston-Brighton. Three hundred dollar fines were issued to dwellings that were in violation of the city’s rental unit delivery standards, 17 of 25 which were due to uninhabitable conditions in Mission Hill apartments.

Keckleissen became asthmatic because of mold and her mother was concerned. Dunham was in the middle of the mess.

“We couldn’t get a hold of the landlord on move-in day,” Dunham said. “The voicemail message box said it was full. Basically it was like he was ignoring our calls.”

Jeff Doggett, Northeastern’s director of government relations and community affairs, roamed the neighborhood handing out Welcome to Boston packets and referring concerned renters to ISD. After the apartment was deemed uninhabitable, the couple found temporary housing through University Life.

Doggett said he saw five more apartments Northeastern students were renting on Mission Hill that were unlivable that day. But what worries Doggett more are the students living in deteriorating housing conditions.

“I actually had some students arguing with their parents on move-in day, saying ‘Mom, I don’t care,'” Doggett said during a meeting with the Student Government Association (SGA) Monday. “The mom stands there and says, ‘You have no running water.'”

Doggett said some real estate agencies and independent property renters target students with print and online advertisements, boasting safe places to party, looking for students who are willing to spend more. But, in doing so, the pre-occupied students may actually be subjected to unsafe conditions and may not be concerned enough to make the landlord handle repairs.

As on-campus housing fills, enrollment increases make the need for off-campus housing grow.

“It’s certainly true that the mayor and the city has been concerned for some time with the condition of housing stock and the decrease in available housing stock for non-students,” said Michael Kelly, administrator for Boston’s Rental Housing Resource Center.

Many civic leaders say there should be increased home owner occupancy in Mission Hill because increased renter occupancy brings unscrupulous landlords, cramming as many students into properties as possible and ultimately deteriorating housing stock, Kelly said.

City Councilor Mike Ross believes universities need to house more students – at least 75 percent – on campus. Northeastern currently houses little more than 50 percent of students on campus.

But some landlords refute any argument about the alleged deteriorating housing stock.

“The value of housing here actually increased because the neighborhood is safer than it was before,” said Sean Clarke, who has lived in Mission Hill for 19 years and rents less than half his property to students. “I’ve never seen a realtor advertise specifically to students.”

Clarke said he visits his tenants and makes sure they know about his expectations and those of the neighborhood. He said he has a maintenance crew that is readily available.

But for renters who aren’t fortunate enough to have a landlord with Clarke’s caliber, problems abound.

“If we didn’t get help from [Northeastern], we wouldn’t have known what to do,” Dunham said. “What would we have done?”