housing discrimination

One UNC Student's Experience With Finding Off-Campus Housing

I signed a new housing lease about a month ago in mid-October – a lease that won’t start until June of next year. This is how competitive student off-campus housing is in Chapel Hill, and the ever-high demand for student housing in Chapel Hill continues to negatively affect non-student renters. 

Niche.com estimates that 90 percent of houses near campus fill up by October. From my experience, students looking to rent an affordable house (as opposed to a townhouse or apartment) begin the search as early as September. Every year this fight to find the closest, nicest and most affordable home puts additional stress on UNC students, and our desperation to sign a lease as soon as possible pits students against each other, increasing competition and driving prices up.

According to a 2010 report prepared by Development Concepts Inc., students make up about a third of all rented units in Chapel Hill (and rented housing comprises over half of all housing in Chapel Hill). We are a huge market for property owners and developers – on-campus housing can only accommodate 9,700 students, so the remaining 9,000 or so undergrads must find off-campus places.

Fair Housing Workshop April 6

A fair housing workshop is coming to Carrboro on Saturday, April 6. EmPOWERment, Inc, the Justice United Affordable Housing Team, and the UNC School of Law Civil Clinic will be co-hosting the event at the Carrboro Century Center, with a morning session from 9:00 am - 11:00 am, and an identical afternoon session from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm.  The workshop will cover the rights of tenants and homeowners under fair housing laws, and will outline basic landlord and tenants rights.
 

Community Guidelines

By using this site, you agree to our community guidelines. Inappropriate or disruptive behavior will result in moderation or eviction.

 

Content license

By contributing to OrangePolitics, you agree to license your contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Creative Commons License

 
Zircon - This is a contributing Drupal Theme
Design by WeebPal.