Janette Foust, mother of three and College Park resident, turned the corner onto her street late one night last semester. Immediately her van was surrounded by about 500 students who had spilled from a triple house party into the road.
“I honest to God felt like I had turned onto the set of a movie. There were people every freakin’ where,” Foust said. “The students were banging on the side of my van. They were rocking it. I was scared. It was just not a good experience.”
Foust is one of many area residents witnessing the atmosphere change of their city neighborhoods as students move into an increasing number of rental homes. For some, the students bring a positive, college-town vibe, but for many others, the student infusion is transforming their once-peaceful neighborhoods into a calamitous, beer can-laden funhouse
The renter-occupied city homes — housing mostly students — have increased by 10 percent (an addition of 883 units) since 1980, according to Census statistics. Thirty-two percent of students live off-campus, and more than half squeeze into single-family homes in family-dominated neighborhoods, according to a 1998 off-campus housing report used in 2003 by the city to form a long-term city housing plan.
Rental homes account for 2,582 of the total 6,030 occupied housing units in the city.
The area affected most by the dispersion of students is Berwyn, which is centered around Berwyn Road east of Route 1. It had an influx of about 194 students between 1990 and 2000.
The increase has heightened tension between the university and the city, with some city officials saying the university has not done enough to keep its students on the campus. In rare instances, university administrators have gotten involved. University President Dan Mote apologized at a Board of Regents meeting for the house party that took over Foust’s Berwyn neighborhood.
“It’s deteriorating the neighborhood,” said Harry Pitt, a Berwyn resident and chairman of the neighborhood preservation committee. “We have residents that can no longer stand what’s going on here [and are] moving out in record numbers.”
Pitt correlates the influx of student rental houses in his neighborhood to the university’s failure to provide students with adequate housing, but university officials disagree.
“I don’t think we are at fault because we provide a very good housing program,” Resident Life Director Deb Grandner said. “It may not be what everyone wants but I think we offer a very good program for our students.”
The university and the city are taking strides to provide more housing opportunities for students. University View, an off-campus complex, recently began leasing some of its 350 high-rise apartments units to students. The university recently completed the final two buildings of the South Campus Commons apartments, and there are plans in the city for more apartments in the Berwyn House Apartments complex.
District 2 Councilman Jack Perry, who represents the Berwyn area, blames landlords for the problem.
“The big problem in my community and much of the city is the conversion of single-family homes to rental homes by absentee landlords who don’t live in the city and who are only concerned with the check at the end of the week,” Perry said.
Landlords see the single-family homes as real-estate investment opportunities. They buy up the homes and mostly rent them to students.
“[There’s a] great deal of hope in the community that when these young people move in the neighborhood that they act like they do at home,” Perry said. “[But] apparently when they leave home they cut the umbilical cord and act however they want.”
Several city residents cite loud noise, trash and vandalism as the major concerns about the students in the neighborhood.
Clopper Almon, 71, a 39-year resident of the Old Town neighborhood — the area around College Avenue — turns the quantity of student litter into a joke with his niece.
“I told her it’s a wonderful discovery that people 20 years old are unable to see a beer can,” he said. “They can perceive only the beer in the can, but they can’t see the can itself.”
Almon rationalizes students’ littering mainly because he enjoys living amid neighbors more than half his age.
“The students make a little more noise at times but, you know, they are good at being extremely good neighbors and are caring and concerned about the older people in the neighborhood,” he said.
District 3 councilman Eric Olson, who represents Old Town, agrees.
“I think there are many respectful students who do try [to] do the right thing and respect their neighbors,” Olson said. “I think it’s definitely getting better, but I think every college town in the country has some tension.”
Eve Muller, 38, a mother of three, moved with her husband to the city specifically for the palpable college energy.
“Generally, I feel like I’m really lucky to be living where we are,” she said. “I feel like on one level it brings diversity to the neighborhood. That’s a positive thing.”
Muller previously lived in other college towns such as Berkeley, Calif., and Eugene, Ore., but does not plan on relocating again.
“My husband and I plan to retire in the house,” she said. “I really see this a place to raise my children and grow old.”
But for other College Park residents, the students have permanently changed what it is like for a family to spend generations in the city.
“You knew your neighbors, the neighborhood was kept up and stuff,” said Karen Robinette, whose family has lived in the city for nearly 50 years. “Right now it’s becoming overwhelming. You’re seeing less children in the neighborhood and the ones that are, you have to watch out for their well-being.”
