Students migrate back to Burlington
By Tim Johnson • Free Press Staff Writer • August 30, 2008

As Marcus Johnson sat on a stoop on Hickock Place on Friday, he swept his hand toward the surrounding apartments and offered a taut description of Burlington:

“Just a bunch of empty houses waiting for college students,” said Johnson, a University of Vermont senior.

Those houses were filling up Friday, and so were the dorms at UVM and Champlain College. This back-to-school weekend is right up there with marathon weekend for the number of visitors, said Tim Shea of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce. The difference is that many of these visitors stay on for another eight months.
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UVM and Champlain undergraduates total more than 11,000 students, a substantial share of Burlington’s population. When they flood back at the end of August, they bring a vitality and a set of lifestyles that their older, more-settled neighbors can find jarring, even objectionable. Late-night noise and drunken misbehavior are the key flashpoints for discord in neighborhoods where the two groups live intermingled, especially in the Hill section.

Any doubt that the annual student influx will catch the community unprepared was allayed this week by a two-page “Quality of Life Initiative” news release issued jointly by Burlington Police Chief Mike Schirling and UVM Dean of Students David Nestor. They cite some of the “educational” materials distributed among students, including UVM’s 31-page “Off Campus Living Survival Guide,” and such institutional/neighborhood campaigns as “Have a Heart,” which puts groups of volunteers at intersections prepared to engage students about late-night noise.

Then there are the stepped-up UVM/police patrols on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights: roving foot patrols, bike patrols, extra cruiser patrols.

The overall goal, Schirling said, is to convey to incoming students: “You’re a member of the community now.” That membership comes with responsibilities that are enumerated, in detail, in more than 500 “welcome bags” that will be distributed in September to students living in Burlington neighborhoods.

Incoming students at Champlain College — which houses roughly half its students in campus dorms close by residential neighborhoods — get an earful about how they have to respect their neighbors. The message is repeated by resident assistants, head residents, and in group orientations by Rich Long, director of public safety. Long took that job after a career with the Burlington police, part of which he spent patrolling the Hill and responding to neighbors’ complaints.

“I know exactly what the neighbors’ pain is,” he said, and that helps in his new role as educator.
September special

Neighborhood tensions are inevitable in any community that’s home to large numbers of college students living off campus. UVM expects first-time students to live on campus their first two years, and 39 residence halls accommodate about 5,000 students. That leaves more than 4,000 upper-class undergraduates who rent quarters in or near the city, often in neighborhoods where student apartments are commingled with other residences.

The most problematic times for noise and intoxication? Spring and fall when the weather is nice. The month that draws the most citations citywide? September.

“Fall is always worse than spring,” said Lt. Jennifer Morrison, who covers Wards 1 and 2.

According to the Burlington Police Department’s monthly breakdown of tickets issued for municipal violations in 2007, September was the No. 1 month for these infractions: noise from parties and social events (74), general noise (25), minors in possession of alcohol (113), open containers in public or in vehicles (45) and public urination (10).

Efforts to avert these sorts of problems have been under way for a long time, but by some accounts, the campaign to smooth student-neighbor relations has ratcheted up over the past few years. UVM’s Office of Student & Community Relations promotes an array of campaigns and initiatives that encourage responsible and respectful behavior.

City councilors Ed Adrian, D-Ward 1, and Andy Montroll, D-Ward 6, commended the preemptive efforts of UVM and Champlain College. Montroll said that he’d seen “a steady level of improvement” over the past few years and that complaint calls to him from his constituents “have gone down quite a bit.”

Longtime residents’ accounts vary. A resident on University Terrace — a mix of professionals and student renters — said that some of her student neighbors have been considerate, that others don’t care, and that problems have worsened over the past two years.

By contrast, Ed Bemis, who has lived on South Union Street for about 40 years, said the past two years had been “much better.” He attributes this in part to neighbors’ having complained as a group to City Council, which apparently prompted a landlord to get the word to tenants.

“The students that landlord has have gotten much nicer,” Bemis said.

From some students’ point of view, the city’s “quality of life” patrols are hard to ignore in spring and fall.

“They hand out noise violations like it’s candy,” said Sam Davidson, a UVM junior. “I could not count how many of my friends have gotten noise violations.”

A noisy party can draw a fine of $400 for a first offense, up to $500 for a second.

The Burlington Police Department has no statistics on complaints about students per se. Deputy Chief Walt Decker does, however, keep track of the city’s total number of complaints about noise and about intoxication logged on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights — the peak times. Noise complaints totaled 343 in 2005, then dropped to 272 in 2006 and 239 last year. Decker said when UVM began sending e-mails to off-campus residents each spring and fall, reminding them to respect their neighbors, that appeared to have had an impact.

On the other hand, intoxication complaints went up after 2005 (216), to 295 in 2006 and 274 in 2007. UVM’s dry-campus policy, banning alcohol from residence halls, dates from 2006, so some student drinking might have been shifted off campus.
Getting started

Ted Trautman, a UVM junior, has been living in the Buell Street neighborhood since July. There have been a few parties, he said, but mostly it’s been pretty quiet. He’s heard that police get stricter once the school year starts. He hasn’t received the UVM e-mail message yet, but he knows what it will say: “Be quiet, respect your neighbors.”

UVM and Champlain encourage students and neighbors to get acquainted, exchange phone numbers and so on.

“If we have a barbecue, we’ll invite the neighbors,” said Kerry Kaye, a resident assistant at Bankus House, home to 45 Champlain College students on South Willard Street.

In between welcoming new Champlain students to Sanders House on College Street on Friday afternoon, head resident Julie Capen gestured toward a next-door apartment building. “This building loved us,” she said of the experience last year. “Our students helped them change a car battery.”

Back on Hickock Place, UVM student Meghan Ustianov said that last year, she was the only student living in a five-unit apartment building, yet there was some tension nevertheless — when she held a party, or when her friends were hanging out there.

She said police patrols were common in this neighborhood and that Friday night would likely be the first big night for parties.

“Tonight will be interesting,” she said.

Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Judge: State must enforce housing rules

August 29, 2008
By Wilson Ring Associated Press

MONTPELIER — For years a division of the Vermont Department of Public Safety failed to enforce the state’s building codes by relying on voluntary compliance by landlords, a practice that in some cases forced tenants from their homes, a judge has ruled.

In the latest chapter in the long-running legal case, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Ben Joseph issued a summary judgment in favor of Vermont tenants, represented by Vermont Legal Aid, ordering the department to come up with a plan to enforce the building codes as intended by the Legislature.

He said that between 2002 and earlier this year, state inspectors found more than 4,000 violations and collected fines in three cases.

“It is obvious that landlords in Vermont know that no direct punishment will be imposed for housing code violations in rental properties,” Joseph wrote in the ruling released last week.

“The harshest consequence of this practice falls on the tenants, not the landlord,” Joseph wrote. “Tenants are thrown out of their homes when the department finds that serious housing code violations are not corrected… These enforcement powers were meant to protect the tenants’ safety, not to punish tenants when their landlords fail to correct code violations.”

Building codes governing such things as plumbing and electrical systems are enforced in Vermont by the Division of Fire Safety, a part of the Department of Public Safety.

Legal Aid Attorney Geoffrey Walsh said the decision would put teeth into code enforcement.

“When (tenants) call up code enforcement officials they don’t have to worry about the inspector evicting them,” Walsh said. “They know the landlord isn’t going to laugh about it.”

Assistant Attorney General Michael Donofrio, who represents the department, said officials were still evaluating Joseph’s ruling and hadn’t made a decision on how to proceed. But the next step will be to hold a hearing in Superior Court to outline how Joseph’s order will be implemented.

Donofrio said the department wanted to focus on the future rather than the past.

He said the enforcement landscape changed a few years ago when code enforcement moved to the new Division of Fire Safety within the Department of Public Safety.

The case grew from a St. Albans situation in which a building at 13 High St. was inspected seven times between 2000 and 2002. Inspectors found “numerous and serious hazards,” including defective smoke detectors, lack of self-closing doors, unsafe stairs and improper railings as well as undersize windows.

But the owner didn’t make repairs until after the department had gone to court and ordered the tenants evicted. Legal Aid kept the tenants in their apartments and the repairs were finally made.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2002, but it was dismissed by the Franklin Superior Court in 2004. In 2006 the Vermont Supreme Court reinstated the case. In 2007 it became a class action suit on behalf of all Vermont tenants.

Last week Joseph issued a summary judgment in favor of the tenants and issued a “writ of mandamus.” In the decision Joseph cited a 1960 Rutland case to define the term: “mandamus takes an official by the coat lapel and orders him to do what, up to that moment, he has felt he had no right to do and was under no compulsion to do.”

In court papers filed last month, Donofrio said that since the lawsuit was originally filed the Department of Fire Safety has implemented a new system of following up on violations by working closely with landlords.

“The inspector enters into a dialogue with the landowner and attempts to move the landowner closer and closer to compliance with the codes,” Donofrio said Thursday.

So few enforcement actions are needed.

“Of course there are situations that arise where conditions are discovered at a building that are so hazardous the only way to ensure safety of tenants are to ask them to vacate,” Donofrio said.

Legal Aid Attorney Maryellen Griffin said most landlords will correct problems without the need to resort to fines. “There are a few bad apples out there who won’t do the right thing,” she said. “You need to have a consequence.”

Corinne Bluto, 55, has lived at 13 High St. in St. Albans, the building that started the lawsuit, for 22 years. In years past, the water froze and her stove broke.

“It was just a mess, all and all,” Bluto said.

Now her building has a new owner.

“Things have gotten better. It’s all been renovated and carpeted,” Bluto said. “Everything’s pretty well up to date.”

Guest Post as shown in 7 Days
By Mike Ives [08.27.08]

Every fall, when thousands of college students arrive in Burlington for the new school year, one of the nation’s tightest housing markets gets even tighter.

The greatest pressure comes from the Queen City’s largest academic institution, the University of Vermont, which this year is expecting nearly 9300 undergraduates — at least a third of whom will live off campus, according to estimates by city and university officials.

UVM has made a “pretty good attempt” to keep up with the housing needs of its growing student body, said Brian Pine, assistant director for housing at the city’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO). Still, with a vacancy rate of just 1 percent, the Burlington housing market struggles to keep pace with the influx of several thousand renting students every year.

“I’d say we’re reaching a point where the need for greater student housing is pressing,” Pine noted.

That much was clear a decade ago, when the city and UVM first tried to get a handle on the university’s impact on the local housing market. In 1998, UVM commissioned an economic analysis that found students occupied more than 16 percent of the city’s 8100 rental units. At the time, about 2566 UVM students were living off campus — 90 percent of all students in the rental market.

The study concluded that student demand “serves to inflate rents and lower vacancies” in Burlington. Indeed, students living off-campus increased rents in Chittenden County by 10 to 15 percent, according to the study. In Burlington’s prosperous Hill Section, where more than half of all students lived, the price of rental housing was as much as 30 percent higher.

Tom Gustafson, UVM’s vice president for campus and student life, said that the low vacancy rate in Burlington can’t be attributed solely to increased student enrollment. For example, he said, vacancy rates were low in the mid-1990s, when UVM’s student population was significantly smaller than it is now. Moreover, two years after the housing analysis, UVM agreed to add 400 beds on campus. In fact, the university has added 1456 new beds since 2000 — for a total of 5544 — including the 800-bed University Heights complex.

Gustafson said juniors and seniors are responding more favorably to on-campus housing options than they have in the past. “We’re opening very full this fall,” he said, “which we take as a good sign in terms of how popular our residence halls are.”

Mark Brooks, of the real estate firm Allen & Brooks, which helped conduct the 1998 housing analysis for UVM, applauds the university’s campus housing initiatives. However, he said, continued growth in enrollment is bound to have an impact on the local rental market no matter how many residential halls are built.

“A lot of students prefer to live off-campus no matter what you do on-campus,” Brooks said. “It’s just a fact.”

As the number of students who seek housing off campus has continued to increase, both the Burlington City Council and housing advocacy groups have tried to force the issue with UVM. In 2005, the council’s “Housing Super Committee” directed city officials to “secure a pledge” from UVM limiting the number of students living off campus to 3100.

Pine and Gustafson acknowledge that pledge never materialized. Instead, according to Gustafson, the two parties agreed to meet regularly to develop “creative” solutions to housing problems.

“I think we all sort of informally agreed, ‘Let’s just keep working and not worry about doing agreement after agreement,’” Gustafson recalled.

A year after the council committee’s directive, Vermont Interfaith Action, a consortium of religious congregations, sought its own agreement with UVM by pressing Gustafson to commit to an update of the 1998 housing analysis. He declined, but agreed to discuss an increase in on-campus housing, said Kathy Bonilla, the president of VIA’s board of directors.

Bonilla said it was eventually decided that the best short-term solution would be for UVM to build 50 units of affordable housing for university employees on land it owned in South Burlington.

“At the time,” Bonilla recalled, “they were saying their debt ratio was maxed out, so they couldn’t create any more student housing.”

Bonilla said her organization is satisfied with the employee housing because it’s a needed addition to the local rental market. “In a way, it was more effective, because if you create more student housing, then you have to hope and pray that students actually move into it,” she said.

UVM isn’t the only campus in town struggling to house its students. Earlier this year, Champlain College overcame opposition from its neighbors before winning approval to tear down the Eagles Club, at the corner of Maple and St. Paul streets, to build 200 student apartments.

The school’s eventual goal is to build housing for as many as 600 students. In the meantime, Champlain has agreed to lease space for 272 students at Spinner Place, a downtown Winooski complex, through 2011.

David Provost, Champlain College’s vice president of finance and administration, said leasing rental housing in Winooski isn’t consistent with the college’s goal of housing its students in Burlington. But, he said, it was a necessary response to a “desperate need for beds.”

While about 30 UVM students will live at Spinner Place this year, that’s far fewer than expected when the $23.6 million complex was proposed. At the time, the idea was that UVM would aggressively market the complex to its students.

Gustafson said that although Spinner Place is advertised on the university’s website, UVM never made a formal commitment to house students there. The apparent lack of interest in the complex by UVM students is not creating problems in the local housing market, he said. The students who live at Spinner Place take pressure off the Burlington housing market, no matter where they attend classes.

Gustafson said that, while the growth in UVM’s undergraduate population is expected to taper off, the university is moving forward with a complex on the Redstone Campus in Burlington’s Hill Section that will house up to 394 students.

Pine said the city is “optimistic” that UVM shares its concerns about the local rental market, and that the university understands the need to increase options for its students.

“When they have students who are forced to take units off campus that are perhaps cheaper, but are substandard, that concerns the students and their parents, I think, and rightly so,” Pine said. “But when the university is able to offer high-quality, comfortable, state-of-the-art living units, that gives them an edge, and I think they see it that way.”

Great Reasons to Rent 1 Month ago
4 great reasons to rent

Who says you have to own a home to live the American dream? Renting can actually be better for your pocketbook and lifestyle.
By Mike Hammer, Parade
Original Article

Before the housing boom went bust this year, homeownership was considered a good investment. But now, with the rash of mortgage foreclosures, renting may be a more attractive option. Here’s why.

1. Renting can save money
According to popular myth, renters are just throwing their money away. But the reality is that when you buy a home, you’re paying for closing fees, mortgage interest, property taxes, private homeowners’ insurance and maintenance — costs that return nothing on your investment. You’d be better off banking that money or putting it into the stock market. In fact, a recent study by Fidelity Investments indicates that stocks provided investors with nearly 4.6% higher average returns in the past 45 years than real estate.

2. Homeowners’ tax deductions are overstated
Conventional wisdom says that buying a home saves you money because the mortgage interest is tax-deductible. But a study by the National Multi Housing Council – a national advocacy group representing the interests of large apartment firms in the U.S. — points out that half of homeowners don’t get a break, because even with mortgage interest and property taxes, their total deductions do not exceed the standard federal tax deduction ($10,900 for couples and $5,450 for singles).

3. More options are available to renters
With fewer houses and condos selling, more owners are converting their properties into rentals or providing incentives to lure prospective tenants. In condo-heavy cities such as Palm Beach, Fla., for example — where the vacancy rate has jumped 2.5% — investors are undercutting apartment rates to generate interest. “A lot of people are offering three free months to attract renters,” says Robert Smith, a real-estate adviser in Orlando, Fla. “And modern apartments offer amenities that may be unaffordable in a new home.”

4. Renting gives you flexibility
Buying a home is a big commitment. If you have to move for any reason — say, for work — your property would need to appreciate by at least 10% for you to recover your sales costs, which typically takes about five years. Renting allows you the freedom and mobility you need to find the right job before you tie yourself to a massive home investment.

Rental Insurance 1 Week, 6 Days ago
A Recent fire in Burlington in an apartment building underscores the importance of having rental insurance as well as mandatory interconnected AC/DC smoke alarms that alerted neighbors.

“The interconnected smoke alarms saved their lives,” Middleton said. Had the apartment contained single station smoke alarms, the occupants would probably not have heard the alarm in time to escape.

Interconnected AC/DC smoke alarms are required in Burlington apartment buildings, but not in all types of residences, and residents relying on battery-operated alarms should consider installing interconnected photoelectric detectors, Middleton said.

The fire caused an estimated $50,000 in damage to the three-story building, which contained five apartments and housed 10 occupants. No injuries were reported.

Neither tenant had renter’s insurance, and both lost belongings. The landlord’s fire insurance protects only the building, and renters are urged to carry their own insurance policy, Middleton said.

Insuring Your Apartment

* Most landlords’ policies just cover the actual structure of your apartment or rental, not your personal belongings.
* renter’s insurance can provide you with crucial liability protection if someone were to hurt themselves on your property and subsequently sue you.
* The liability component can protect you from any judgments against you and pay for your legal defense.

Check out http://www.apartmentinsurancerates.com/

CNBC News: Rent or Buy 3 Weeks, 4 Days ago
When should you rent or Buy? This small video from the CNBC website helps discuss why renting may be your best bet.

In many markets, renting a home or apartment is a savvier financial move than buying, since prices can still go way down. Watch the video to see Carmen on Wednesday’s TODAY show explain when — and where — renting makes more sense than buying, and stay with On the Money to find out more about Carmen’s “Rule of 15,” coming up tomorrow[july 11 2008].

V T Apartment Vacency Drops 1 Month ago
WCAX Article
Burlington, Vermont - June 13, 2008

Anyone who’s been looking for an apartment to rent in Chittenden County knows how tight the housing market has gotten.

As we reported last month, vacancy rates have been dropping — again. Chittenden County has always had low vacancy rates. But a report says the rate has dropped down to just 1 percent. Mark Brooks of Allen and Brooks, a company that analyzes real estate trends, says the slowing housing market has forced would-be home buyers to rent instead of buy. Students also have a big impact on the vacancy rate.

As Mark Brooks explained, “Through the late 90s it was below 1 percent, routinely a half to 1 percent, somewhere in there. And unless things change, we could be heading back in that direction again because at least for the time being, enrollments continue to grow at UVM and Champlain College, and there are plans in the works to accommodate more students at both institutions. But in the shorter term that will continue to have a tightening affect on the market, especially in the Burlington area.”

A year ago the vacancy rate stood at 2 percent. But that was because the new Keen’s Crossing apartment building in Winooski added more rental units. Most of them are now full, which puts the vacancy rate back down at 1 percent.

New Lead Rules to into Effect July 1, 2008
FreePress Article
BURLINGTON – New provisions that are meant to strengthen Vermont’s existing law to prevent lead poisoning law will take effect today.

New provisions apply to homes and rental properties built before 1978:
– Homeowners will be required to use lead-safe renovation, remodeling, maintenance and repair practices.
– Sellers of houses and rental properties must provide information to buyers as part of the selling process.
– Landlords and child care facilities must comply with new requirements for maintenance practices.

Lead dust is the main source of lead exposure in Vermont, and the new legislation (H. 863) will prevent and prohibit activities that create lead hazards in the soil around older homes. Nearly 70 percent of Vermont homes were built before 1978 — including 112,000 owner-occupied units and 56,000 rental housing units. The law has new requirements for landlords and child care facilities, and new enforcement authority for the Health Department.
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In 2006, nearly 2,000 Vermont children had blood lead levels at or above the level of concern established by the Vermont Department of Health, according to state statistics.

Beginning Tuesday, sellers must provide buyers with information packets and complete a disclosure form for buyers both before, and at the time of, the sale. Landlords also must provide lead education materials for new tenants. The required forms are available for download from the Health Department website at healthvermont.gov.

The law also prohibits removing paint by dry scraping, open flame burning or torching, heat guns over 1,100° F, machine sanding or grinding. Water-blasting, high-pressure washing, abrasive blasting or chemical stripping are also prohibited. Other new requirements include misting paint surfaces before scraping, and wetting paint debris before sweeping.

Landlords have new requirements relating to “essential maintenance practices” or EMPs and are encouraged to attend a free essential maintenance practices training. The training schedule can be found here.

The Health Department will continue to work with the Attorney General’s Office to ensure that Vermonters comply with the new law. Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, the Health Department will issue citations and impose civil penalties up to $400 on landlords and child care facilities that fail to comply with the essential maintenance practice requirements.

For more information on lead poisoning in Vermont and a list of lead safe practices and requirements, visit the Department of Health’s Web site.