A Student Quits Due to Lack of Housing
During the Fall semester, on a Monday afternoon as I walked into the class that I was a Teaching Assistant for, one of the students wanted to leave the classroom early. The Professor excused him. The following class the student requested the teacher that he wanted to leave early again. He said: “I am homeless and it is getting cold, I want to enroll into a shelter facility before they close for the day.”
The following week, he emailed, informing us that he was taking the semester off and expressed his hopes to return in the Spring.
Such is the story of one of the many students who are facing the housing affordability crisis full force in Reno. The prices of apartments are continuing to rise and students are struggling to make ends meet.
Many students who are able to find housing facilities are also faced with additional troubles of allotment and move-in date deferment because the builders are unable to hand over the apartments on the stipulated time. This problem doesn't just affect undergraduate students but graduate students through limited state-funded stipends that haven't been increased since 2018.
Not As Expected at Park Place
Katelyn Counts is a pre-nursing student enrolled in her second year of college with the University of Nevada, Reno.
She had signed a lease with Park Place (above on Virginia Street north of campus) in April of 2020 and was told that her move-in date would be on August 15th. However, she could not move into Park Place until October 1st. She says she also did not get to choose her roommates, paid an additional $25 to the existing $825 of her rent and got allotted a totally different apartment than the one she was initially promised. She had to take it. However, the living conditions were not as expected.
After moving in she was living underneath construction as the floor above her was not done yet, according to her. This was not the only ordeal Katelyn had to go through. Before officially moving into the complex she was constantly receiving uncertainty from the management over the actual move-in dates. She was asked to stay temporarily at the Circus Circus casino and hotel in Downtown Reno. Katelyn was paying the same rent amount ($825/month) to stay there without any amenities on a floor that also hosted strangers and not just students. '“Coming home late at night to a casino hotel was a little scary as a young woman,” she remembers.
In terms of food, they were also promised free “breakfast” which consisted mostly of granola bars.
“I think the biggest part was mostly just like trying to figure out what to do for food. Because there weren't microwaves in any of our rooms,” she said. “We only had a mini fridge and they said like, oh you can use the microwaves downstairs. But then the store wasn't open for a lot. Like it closed at 8:00 PM. So I had to work until like one a.m. and wouldn't be able to get food unless it was in my fridge. So I had Starbucks food for most of the time, which I worked at Starbucks and at the time they were doing a free meal every day.”
Katelyn also adds that she was lucky enough to have her family just hours away from Reno but realizes that it is a lot for a student to deal with housing issues, figure out their food, walk to school as well as deal with midterms and submissions all at the same time. She also says grades are everything for a student and research students should not have to deal with the added stress of finding housing.
A Mess of “Clerical Errors,” Noise and Bad WiFi
Nathan Noble, a current Park Place resident, a sophomore at UNR and an elected senator with the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno (ASUN) had no different experience.
He was tired of living in the overpriced dorms and was excited to be able to choose his roommates before moving into Park Place. As a person who loves to cook his own meals, he was also elated to have a kitchen. However, he too faced constant delays for his own move-in and could not do so until November 12. His initial move-in date was July 30th.
While waiting for his apartment to be ready, he too had to put up with residing at Circus Circus. He was paid back in installments of $500 as he had a roommate.
“The common feeling was that it was hush money really to stop anyone from filing action against them or from trying to do something about it,” he said. “But basically that money only went so far because it didn't even compensate for rent. Also when I moved out, they still charged me for Circus Circus rent. Their accounting structures are very bad. They were scrambling and it's not the fault of the front desk workers or the Park Place workers. They were honestly doing the best they could in a terrible situation. It's really the fault of management for not handling this very professionally. I know people who never got their checks, I know people who never got their prorations, people who ended up paying for parking for two months when they were living in Circus Circus, where parking is free, just a bunch of very serious clerical errors.”
Nathan describes his Circus Circus experience as a deeply unpleasant one. They did not have amenities, noise control and the wifi kept going out which made it impossible for students to do school work.
Additionally, Nathan went to his friend’s house to be able to cook and bring food back for storage for the rest of the week. Nathan was thankful to have a vehicle that helped him in this but expressed his concerns for the many students he represents.
There was the emergence of an idea to craft a housing resolution for students. ‘The most important thing that we can do with our voice is advocate on behalf of students who are suffering from a lack of basic necessities,” he said. “And as I painfully discovered over the past few months, housing is certainly one of them, usually the emphasis is put on food, water and all that stuff. But housing is a key one. Especially if you're going to school the next day. I believe that a resolution will not only allow the university to take some form of broader action to adjust their process for dealing with housing complexes off campus but I also believe that it's important for the student body to stand up and claim control over what's going on because it affects students and there should be some kind of student oversight.”
Not Quite “Awesome Apartments”
Another student who prefers to remain anonymous about his Park Place experience says that the place dubbed itself as ‘awesome apartments’ made him hemorrhage his finances. The website states: “ Park Place is designed with the needs of today’s college student in mind. Experience the difference in Reno’s new definition of luxury student living.”
“The entire time they had no intention of letting anyone out of their lease, so I made contact with the company that owns Park Place at Reno directly to be let out of my lease,” he said. “I had had enough of being told one thing and then having the rug pulled from under my feet at the last minute. The leasing office kept stringing the students who were stuck at the casino along for a long while. Luckily, I was able to be released, but a majority of the other students were landed with the hotel room. Any who asked to be released from their leases were turned away (sometimes rudely) because they had given ‘alternate accommodations’ as stated in the lease. Clearly, this did not mean ‘equal’ accommodations. Some who were paying for separate rooms in an apartment with a roommate were given a room at Circus Circus with two beds. Their accommodations at the casino were in no way proportional to what the students are/were paying to an unfinished apartment complex. Because there are no kitchens, the students had no choice but to hemorrhage finances even further on expensive meals or choose to eat cheap unhealthy alternatives. I do not know if what they are doing is legal, i.e., to not even give the choice for tenants to break their leases in order to search for homes. But I do believe something must be done to rectify what it is that they have done, which is to take advantage of students by giving false promises that they were unable to fulfill,” he said in a lengthy explanation of his frustrations.
One student, Eli Denmead, struck out on the sunny looking Ponderosa Village, which was just the beginning of his problems.
A Long Run Around to Find Housing
Eli Denmead, a second-year Master’s student in History, has been through a long run around himself, which has seen him bail on two places. Denmead initially applied to Ponderosa Village, a housing complex located on campus only available to graduate students, professional students, & faculty and staff.
He says he did not receive any correspondence from them for about four months. On contacting them again Denmead learned that the apartment complex had undergone a change of management and he was not placed on the waiting list at all.
The person from the office then placed him on the eighth position of the waiting list. He was assured that he would not have an issue getting in for the Fall. However, a few months had gone by and he had heard nothing from the administration on his allotment. He sent a few emails that never got answered. On calling the apartment complex directly he learned that the leases were sent out and was also informed that if he had not received one, he would not have secured a place. Denmead was angry.
Being a few weeks away from the start of the semester, Denmead contacted Park Place to find a place there.
He says he was offered a spot in the three by three units. In utter desperation, he jumped at the opportunity. His application was quickly pushed through and the lease was signed in a few days. He faced a similar fate to the students mentioned above though. A week before classes, he received emails regarding lodging preferences and amenities at Circus Circus.
On contacting Park Place he was informed that the apartment was not ready for move-in and the students would have to reside at the casino for a few weeks.
“I was frustrated, but they promised a number of amenities and to reimburse portions of our rent to make up for it. I moved into the Circus Circus, under the assumption that the move in date would September 15th. As that date approached, they told us that the new move in date was actually October 1st. They again promised to reimburse portions of rent for us. Once that date approached, another bombshell dropped. Building One was ready to move in, and the bottom two floors of building two would be ready the next week, but the top three floors (including my unit) would not be ready until November 12th. I was now looking at another month and a half in a hotel, without access to a kitchen, and only a small portion of the rent for the next month and a half would be reimbursed,” he said.
Our Town Reno contacted Park Place to get a reply on these multiple situations we have recounted but did not hear back by time of publication.
Because of the trouble that he was facing, Denmead decided to discontinue living with Park Place at this point when his friend mentioned a room available was available for him at a shared house they were renting. Sadly he is paying double rent now, $580 at his new place, and $925 at Park Place which he is trying to get out of as soon as possible.
“I quickly jumped at the opportunity, as I was tired of living without a kitchen in a hotel. I contacted the complex to let them know I would not be moving in, but was told that I was still responsible for the lease and would only be let out if I could find someone to replace me. I have spent the last two months attempting to find someone to take my space to no avail, despite the fact that I was not made aware of construction issues before signing my lease and the fact that I have never stepped foot in the unit,” he said.
My Own Predicament
I, as an international graduate student from India, battled similar issues while searching for an affordable student apartment in Reno. I was 7800 miles away from this country on a different time zone, calculating the currency exchange to be able to understand if I could afford living and studying in Reno for 18 months, with the amount of stipend I was being offered.
Houses rented out by families were way above my budget and Ponderosa Village facilities (which looked like one of the best options available) were not answering any of my emails. Cheaper housing options were already filled up.
Tormented by the situation, I started emailing and connecting with other international students who were currently living here. Finally, with the help of some kind Indian students on Facebook, I was able to secure a place in an off campus apartment.
My rent is $665 and I barely make a little more than $1000. I belong to a middle class family in India where my mother is the only other member of my family. I do not have a father. My visa does not permit me to work more than 20 hours as per the federal stipulation for International students. I work 15 hours/week currently. I have managed a one room apartment here in Reno with a shared kitchen area with four other flatmates. I walk to school and curtail grocery shopping in order to avoid a hand to mouth situation.