I've had another sad realization. Well... this one was actuallyreally funny at first.
I was taking my roommate Chelsie to class when we decided tocompare our house (she refers to it as "the dungeon") to the otherhouses on our street. As we were cruising down Riverside, shepointed at every house and judged, "Nicer. Nicer. Nicer. Nicer.Nicer. Oh! That one is worse than ours! (It was the burnt downfraternity house.) Nicer. Nicer. Nicer. Nicer."
It took me a moment to regain my composure after cracking upabout our pathetic house, but it was then that I realized "Oh myGod! I have a slumlord!"
Slumlords (neglectful landlords) were an issue that the StudentSenate Governmental Committee was dealing with when I first joinedas a freshman. Over the years, it has fallen off of the agenda,but, as I realized, it is still a major problem. And what's worseis that we college students don't even know about our rights astenants to have suitable living conditions.
I can hardly believe that I've lived in my house for almost ayear and a half and just realized that my landlord is a slumlord.You wouldn't guess it by looking at them. They are a nice, cool,young couple. They will fix something occasionally if you nag themabout it enough. But is it acceptable that none of our windows aresealed (which doesn't make for friendly gas bills)? Or that wecan't receive mail because our mailbox is barely hanging on to thepost by some packaging tape (not even duct tape!)? Or that I don'teven shudder anymore when I hear animals crawling around in theceiling above my bedroom? I'm not even sure if we have gutters, butif that's what's hanging down from our roof, I think they are longoverdue to be fixed. And I won't even get started on thebathrooms!
Is this acceptable? NO! These things are not acceptable atall!
My roommates and I pay a total of $1,040 per month in rent. Isit unreasonable to expect our landlords to put perhaps a quarter ofthat money back into the house? Should we really have to demandthat they maintain their own property? Isn't that what we pay themfor?
Again, I went so long without realizing that my landlords wereslumlords and I know that there are other students with this sameproblem. (Come on... I've seen some of your houses!)
The Off-Campus Caucus of Student Senate has just recently putthis issue back on our agenda, but until we can figure outsomething to do about it, please be aware that you do have rightsas a tenant. Come to the Student Senate meeting at 3:15 p.m. onWednesday and let the Off-Campus Caucus know about any of yourslumlord problems. We as students and tenants must work together tosolve this problem. We cannot allow our landlords to continuetaking advantage of us like this.
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