Rising rents, poor housing conditions, and doubts that those circumstances will improve soon are common topics of conversation among students. "My rent is going up, but I don’t understand why," says Katie Fitzsimmons, a University sophomore. "We pay utilities and it’s not as if our landlords do anything." Fitzsimmons and her four roommates share a house in the Como neighborhood, and their rent recently increased $200. They now pay $2,000 a month for the two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. "It’s like this everywhere around here, and I think we have a pretty good deal," she says.

The Minneapolis housing shortage has existed for more than a decade, but as University enrollment increases, the market for housing only gets tighter. Because it is a seller’s market, developers are not tempted to build affordable housing. Instead, they choose to construct more profitable high-end ventures, such as Grand Marc at Seven Corners, where the average rent is approximately $823 per bedroom, or Dinnaken Apartments on Washington Avenue, where an average two-bedroom apartment costs $1,400 a month.

"Most of the rental properties without government subsidies are high-end. Moderately priced rental properties are rather nonexistent," says Jan Morlock, director of Community Relations at the University.

With dorms at full capacity, more students must find housing off campus. The University has housed freshman in the Days Inn near campus at the beginning of each of the last five years, and the same will be true this fall. Even with Frontier and Middlebrook hall additions, which will add 331 beds this fall, the University plans to house about 100 students at the Days Inn.

Mannix Clark, assistant department director of housing at the University, attributes the increase of Days Inn residents to the larger number of incoming students and the high retention rate of students.

Betsey Kukowski, a liberal arts major, was evicted last winter because her landlord lost his license. The landlord knew he was under investigation but did not disclose this fact when Kukowski and her two roommates signed a lease in September 2000. The women were able to find new housing, but are suing the landlord for $6,000—including for unreturned rent checks and damage. "We were thrown out in the middle of January, and it was freezing cold," Kukowski says. "It was something that should not have happened."

Bill Dane, an attorney with the University’s Student Legal Services, is representing the women. He says approximately 40 percent of Student Legal Services’ 1,200 cases a year involve landlord-tenant conflicts.

Expanding on-campus housing will alleviate some of the strain on the off-campus market. With the completion of Riverbend Commons (along East River Road behind Coffman Union) in fall 2002, the University will add 424 beds. This year the University also offered its first housing fair where students could gather information about local landlords, renting procedures, and available properties.

"When students are looking for housing this summer, I hope they’re arming themselves with every piece of information they can," Morlock says, stressing that students should know renters’ rights. To help prevent housing problems from inhibiting learning, the Housing and Residential Life office has recently stepped up its commitment to help students find suitable housing. Morlock and others are working with neighboring communities to amend housing problems, such as student parties, high rents, and substandard, sometimes unsafe, housing. The office recently published a renting booklet for students and hosted an on-line workshop for parents.

"It’s always likely to be a high market in terms of cost [in the University area]," Morlock says. "[But] I think there is a lot of good stuff that’s going on to help build student capacity."