BALTIMORE — Jessica Annoh is a rising senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland, College Park. She wanted to live on campus last year, but instead, found herself paying $1,200 a month for one bedroom in a five-bedroom apartment off campus.
Most of the year, Annoh finances her education and housing using scholarship money, but during the summer, her parents have to help her cover rent. And that, she says, is hard.
“I know my parents have a lot on their plates,” she said. Her parents pay rent on their own home, as well as rent on her apartment, and the added expense is a burden. “Not that [the university doesn’t] value their students, but if they valued their students a little more, stuff like this wouldn’t happen,” Annoh said.
Across the U.S., rents have risen in the past few years. And college students, already paying a premium for a four-year education, are feeling the pinch.
The housing affordability crisis in the country stems from a larger demand for housing than the supply available, according to the U.S. Treasury, due to local land-use and zoning restrictions, increased construction costs and changing demographics.
The result has trickled down to college students, many of whom are now renting off-campus apartments in an unusually tight market.
In College Park, rent can range from $890 to $2,800 per person in areas closest to campus, according to the University of Maryland’s off-campus housing database.
Students said that the search and cost of apartment buildings off-campus is stressful, and believe that the university doesn’t provide enough resources to help them find apartments or other housing.
As recent graduate Angelina Ward spoke with The Baltimore Sun, she was packing up her apartment, preparing to move back to Annapolis to live with family.
Ward told The Sun she financed most of her education with grants, but because of FAFSA issues, she had to take out a loan and cobble together three part-time jobs in order to pay her rent. She felt living on campus had been much easier.
“Senior year, when I was physically spending my money and working on my rent, that’s when stress started to accumulate,” she said. “When you’re living on campus, you’re supported and have everything you need.”
The university declined to speak to The Sun by deadline. However, a representative sent The Sun information about its housing efforts.
Outside of the 39 residence halls on campus, the University of Maryland, College Park, offers two apartment buildings specifically for students, with a new one under construction at below-market prices.
Incoming freshmen and sophomores who live on campus are prioritized for on-campus housing. Juniors and seniors can apply if there are units left over.
This year, the university had enough housing for the students who requested it, said University of Maryland Senior Director of Communications Rebecca Aloisi. Some juniors and seniors might not have gotten their first pick of housing, though, due to the size of the sophomore class, she said.
The university has not offered guaranteed housing for all four years for at least 20 years, said Aloisi.
In that time, the population of the city has increased by about 5,000 since 2010, according to U.S. census data.
As a result, the city has seen a much higher demand for housing in the last 15 years, county and city representatives said, and has moved to build more housing. But it’s still not enough, and it’s not cheap enough for students, they said.
“College Park’s housing affordability is not where I would like it to be, but compared to most of D.C. inner and suburban communities, it is actually pretty good,” said College Park City Councilmember John Rigg.
Although the city doesn’t have large pockets to bring large housing projects by itself, College Park uses tax credits for developers to help expand the supply of housing to lower prices, he said.
Unlike many municipalities, College Park does not have the authority to make zoning and land decisions. College Park can advise when it comes to new development projects, but the county has final say.
“It can be challenging,” Rigg said. “The city is the closest democracy to the people.”
Prince George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson’s district encompasses College Park. Olson said he helped pioneer most development projects for off-campus student housing over the past decade, but rents and demand remain high across the region.
Olson believes that it’s more efficient if authority remains with the county.
Tax incentives for off-campus student housing have shrunk over the years, Olson said, since it was first used to incentivize development. Now, however, the county encourages affordability considerations but cannot control prices, Olson said.
But, he said, there are pros and cons to the growth that university students bring to the county and city.
“College Park is in demand,” said Olson. “We’re a thriving, vibrant community where people want to be, and that’s a good thing.
“At the same time,” he said, “We need to continue to look at how we can ensure that we’re a community that everybody can afford to live in.”
Still, some students say they’re scraping together funds for housing. Some even use money that they’ve saved up from part-time jobs they worked in high school — money that should have been a safety net.
Samantha Linares, a 20-year-old junior from Montgomery County, plans to move to an apartment in College Park during the spring semester instead of staying in university housing.
She and her roommates decided to look for housing outside the university because they worried they wouldn’t get housing they liked or even get housing, she said.
Linares found an apartment on Snapchat and negotiated down the rent, ultimately paying approximately $1,000 a month. Linares said she will pay for her apartment with money she’s saved from part-time jobs.
“I’m envious of people who don’t have to worry about it,” she said. “I’m also just fortunate that I have the resources to pay for it myself.”
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