Georgetown Targets Landlords in Updated Housing Policy
Georgetown University will contact landlords to ask them to sign a 'Landlord Pledge' and is cooperating in an unprecedented manner with DCRA to seek landlord compliance with housing regulations.
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Georgetown University is making a list and checking it twice--and then sharing that list with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA).
Landlords will receive a letter from the University in the next week asking them to sign a pledge to follow basic housing laws and to be a partner with GU to address issues impacting quality of life in the community. The University will then create a list of landlords who have signed the pledge and will continue to update a list of "properties of concern," a naughty and nice list if you would.
The letter, sent by Anne Koester, director of off-campus student life (OCSL), and Margie Bryant, associate vice-president auxiliary business services, asks landlords to "declare your commitment to maintaining the quality of life in our community to your neighbors publicly." (See attached PDFs of letter and pledge).
In turn, GU promises to promote landlords who sign the pledge and to recommend them to students through a list on the university's website.
Additionally, the university spells out its policy of putting landlords on the naughty list.
"Properties with repeated, unresolved complaints will be placed on a List of Properties of Concern, publicly published on the University website" states the letter.
Currently there are ten properties on the list of concern on the OCSL website (consult map above).
Georgetown officials have met with DCRA officials to work on a closer collaboration to ensure that landlords housing students off-campus are complying with District rules, including holding a business license and meeting home inspection requirements.
Recently, DCRA shared a list of registered landlords in the 20007 zip code with the university. Georgetown will then compare that list with the known locations of students living in off-campus housing; GU is one of the only D.C. universities that requires students who live off campus to register where they live.
"This is the first time that we’ve been engaged in this level of information sharing," said Helder Gil, a legislative affairs specialist at DCRA. "It's sort of an interesting experiment...a pilot that we’re trying out with them."
He expects to get a list back shortly from the university of properties where students are living but for which there is no corresponding landlord license. DCRA will then contact the landlords to try to bring them into compliance. If efforts to do so do not work out, landlords without licenses are fined $2,000.
"The administrators, I think try to gear students towards going for the licensed folks," said Gil.
DCRA will also have a more robust presence on campus during the seasons when students begin looking for housing, to inform them of their rights as tenants.
"We’ll try this pilot out, see how it works and hopefully get more people into compliance," said Gil.
CPT Jack Wigal
8:18 am on Friday, October 21, 2011
Sounds like a witch-hunt; as you might expect from a university of this particular affiliation. What's next? Are student going to be required to sign "loyalty oaths" (a la Catch-22 style) to get meals in the commissary?
What are they going to do to landlords who refuse to sign the pledge, but comply with all other requirements?
The landlords should bind together and refuse this. The only pledge anyone should ever take in this country is to The U.S. Constitution.
Reem Chiaviello
10:16 am on Friday, October 21, 2011
I agree with you Jack. The universities should stick to teaching the students and leave this issue between students and landlords. I am sure we have the brightest of students in DC who can talk to landlords or complain about landlords without the help of a university. I would advise Georgetown to stick to the original mission of education and focus on doing it well. The government supervises these other issues so there is no reason for an educational entity to get involved.
Isabel Fisher Ford
1:08 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011
We strongly support GU's decision. Some landlords abuse their leverage as landlords and completely disregard the upkeep of their properties -- some of which are in an utter state of abandonment. The student tenants have little leverage because of the limited supply of housing. The only interested parties who can stand up to these abusive and greedy landlords are the University and the neighbors. Go get them!
CM
1:36 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011
Call it a witch-hunt all you like, but you fail to remember the house fire that claimed the life of an undergraduate only 6 years ago. The landlord had failed to fully comply with housing codes and fire protection, and as such a smart, 20 year-old died of smoke inhalation in his home in the most affluent suburb of the nation's capital.
Rail all you want against a "system" you say is so against the Constitution, but you only paint yourself as a morally-bereft individual who shows no compassion for the plight of students in the face of a struggle against landlords easily described as slumlords. Shame on you.
g bruno
8:31 am on Saturday, October 22, 2011
I thought I read the "smart" student had a bunch of lit candles and was drinking. The amount of alcohol abuse among undergrads is very high at G-town. No amount of parenting on the part of the University is going to save every undergrad. What about the American University Student who got drunk and climbed out of his dorm room window and fell off of a roof. Bad American University. They should a Resident Advisor in every room watching every undergrad 24-7.
CM
6:31 pm on Saturday, October 22, 2011
1) The fire was electrical.
2) How on earth does your perception of alcohol abuse at Gtown have ANYTHING to do with landlord issues? Also, state schools trump GU on any drinking scale. Ever.
3) AU is not GU. And if you want to give the money to pay for the RAs to babysit (as student RAs wouldn't have the time to be watching individual students all the time), go right on ahead and pay for it. Your fiscal sense is obviously strong.
4) You forgot a verb in your last sentence.
just the facts please
7:46 am on Sunday, October 23, 2011
Blame Shifts for Fatal Fire Near GU
Student's Death Led To More Inspections
By D. Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
2/4/05; B1
A fire that killed a Georgetown University student last year and triggered a series of city inspections of off-campus housing was not caused by faulty furnace wiring, as first reported by authorities, but was started by cigarettes or candles, officials revealed yesterday…
The investigators found evidence that the fire originated in an area where Rigby had been using candles and near an ashtray, officials said.
The follow-up team of investigators determined that the furnace and its wiring were in proper working order. A witness also told authorities that Rigby had been smoking and using candles the night before the fire, officials said.
Peter
5:26 pm on Monday, October 24, 2011
This is a great move by the university. They are addressing one of the actual problems of tension between the community and the university. Absentee landlords who do not keep their properties up to code resulting in eye sores and unkempt lawns. These landlords are who neighbors should really direct their anger at instead of the University.
word wyz
12:13 pm on Thursday, October 27, 2011
Mostly well-intentioned window dressing. The decision to rent off-campus ultimately rests with the students, and the ones who want to party disruptively will not be influenced by GU's list of "safe" properties.