[B]URLINGTON — Keith and Penny Pillsbury have lived on University Terrace for 43 years. When they moved to the downtown Burlington neighborhood near the University of Vermont campus, the single family homes on their street were occupied by families and hospital guests.
Now only students live on University Terrace, and the Pillsburys complain that no one else can afford to live on their street.
Penny Pillsbury recalled one couple with promising careers and two children who were priced out of the neighborhood. The landlord kicked them out to renovate the apartment and so he could charge more for the rental unit. The couple offered to buy the house, but the landlord would not sell it to them, she said. After they realized they could not afford to continue renting, they moved out of state.
Nearly half the properties on University Terrace are now investment properties that are rented to UVM students who bring in more money for landlords over a longer period of time.
“What we have here is a street out of 22 residents only nine are longer term residents on the street and each year, on June 1st, we get all new neighbors,” Keith said.
The Pillsburys are part of Vermont Interfaith Action, a coalition of religious groups based in Burlington. On Monday, members of the coalition and local housing and community groups gathered at the Pillsburys’ house, which is located across the street from the UVM Davis Center, to talk about how the University of Vermont could help to ease the housing crisis in Burlington.
The city’s 2015 Housing Action Plan identifies the construction of new student housing as a step UVM could take to make housing for families more affordable in Burlington.
About 2,200 UVM students choose to live in downtown Burlington each year, according to the plan, and the size of the off-campus student population puts pressure on housing in the rest of the city. Students compete with residents for rentals, driving up rent.
Rita Markley, the director of the Committee on Temporary Shelter, which provides shelter for homeless residents, said many landlords want to make higher profits by renting to students who will pay more for smaller spaces, than a family with one or even two incomes.
Right now, 36 percent of Burlington renters put half or more of their income toward housing, said Erhard Mahnke, the director of the Vermont Affordable Housing coalition. The recommended maximum for housing is one-third of a renter’s income.
Mahnke said that UVM has made some progress to lower the density of students living downtown, but a lot more work needs to be done — and quickly.
The group identified ways that the university could encourage students to remain on campus, including a change that would allow college students 21 or older to drink alcohol on campus.
Lisa Kingsbury, the university’s planning relations manager, said the university houses 62 percent of the student population on campus and that number will increase to 63 percent once construction of new dorms is complete.
“We are doing more than most other public universities,” Kingsbury said.
In the past 12 years, the university has expanded housing at University Heights, the Redstone Lofts and converted an administrative building into dorms, she said. The three buildings have created 1,363 new beds, Kingsbury said.
Focus groups that UVM has conducted with students show that the university’s dry campus is not driving students off campus, Kingsbury said.
Kingsbury said the university recognizes that students who live off-campus are putting pressure on housing costs for the city and has participated in the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan to help address the issue.
The group agreed that off-campus housing is part of a larger rental crisis in Burlington.
“UVM students provide the city with so much vibrancy, we would just like to see more initiative to help with housing,” Markley said.
Markley also said residents want more accountability. Housing agreements between the city and the college have not been moved forward quickly enough, advocates said.
Under the 2015 Housing Plan, the city is to begin discussions with UVM in early 2016 on how to add an additional 900 beds by 2020.
Kingsbury said while no formal discussion or plan has begun at this time, UVM has looked at informal plans to develop 900 beds.
The dorms could be built by a non-affiliated, private developer not directly related to UVM, she said, that would market the housing to students, she said.
Markley said that in the past UVM has made agreements with the city to build more housing, but there has been no follow-through.
Vermont is the 13th most expensive state for renters according to a national report called “Out of Reach.” A two-bedroom apartment in Vermont on average costs $1,099. Vermont renters need to earn $21.13 an hour, or $43,947 a year to keep rental costs for a two-bedroom apartment at 30 percent of their income. The “housing wage” for that same two-bedroom rental in Burlington is $26.08 an hour.
