Julia Dell’Amore is a features writer for The Vermont Cynic, where a version of this story was published.
BURLINGTON — With Burlington’s tight housing market and large number of students living off campus, new Americans often find themselves competing with those students for increasingly scarce rental options.
Because the number of multi-unit dwellings in the city is insufficient, competition among students, immigrants and refugees for that limited housing stock is high, according to state Sen. Chris Pearson, D/P-Chittenden. According to U.S. News & World Report college rankings, 58% of students at the University of Vermont live off campus.
“For students, many times the rent is paid by folks from Connecticut, New York or New Jersey where their salaries are much higher,” said Pearson, who lives in the city’s Old North End. “This takes up (housing) that would otherwise be rentals for working families, and that puts a lot of pressure on the housing market.”
Providing more students with on-campus housing would alleviate some of this competition, he said. Otherwise, challenges to refugee resettlement and immigration will persist.
“I think that (building more on-campus housing) would actually put downward pressure on rent a little bit as landlords would be looking for tenants as opposed to just waiting and having tenants come to find them, which is what happens when we have so little vacancy,” Pearson said.
Affordable housing is a challenge across Vermont, including at UVM, university spokesperson Enrique Corredera said.
“The University provides housing for around 60% of its undergraduate students, which is significantly more than many of our peer institutions,” he said in an email. “UVM is actively exploring options and looking for opportunities in partnership with the City to address this important issue.”
UVM geography professor Pablo Bose said Burlington’s identity as a small city with a high demand for affordable rent makes housing accessibility an overwhelming challenge to refugee resettlement and immigration.
“There’s no excess housing stock in a place like Burlington,” Bose said. “Vacancy rates are about 1%. It’s really, really low here.”
Acknowledging how challenging this situation is, Bose said the university and the city are responsible for formulating a solution to the crisis.
Although the university spent $57 million building the Central Campus Residence Hall in 2017 to house an additional 700 students, Pearson said UVM still has not made housing enough of a priority.
“(UVM) has a whole trajectory of things that they want to do in the business of higher education,” Pearson said. “Housing would interrupt that, so they come up with all sorts of ridiculous excuses.”
In 2013, Dorcas Lohese emigrated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the age of 12. Burlington’s resources made the city an ideal location, but affordable housing opportunities were hard to find, said Lohese, now a UVM senior.
“The issue is that housing is very, very, very expensive,” Lohese said. “If there were more places available that were cheaper, I feel like we wouldn’t have to be restricted where we lived.”
In a rural state like Vermont, Burlington has resources other towns lack, Lohese said. Grocery stores are nearby, and commuting to work or school is relatively convenient.
“Living in Burlington, there are many things out there, and you can get around,” Lohese said. “But when you’re living outside of Burlington, it becomes technically very difficult.”
Due to a lack of options for affordable housing in Burlington, Lohese’s family settled in an apartment in Colchester.
Housing opportunities for immigrants or refugees and students in Burlington need to be balanced, she said.
“When you are bringing (in) all these students, you gotta also have a plan (of) how to accommodate housing for them or facilitate student housing that isn’t necessarily taking away from the community,” Lohese said.
Many students, including UVM junior and Old North End resident Romaney Granizo-Mackenzie, feel a sense of guilt for their residence in the Burlington area and, like Lohese, urge a long-term solution.
“By participating in the system, we’re perpetuating it,” Granizo-Mackenzie said.
Increasing housing opportunities for everyone, not just students who can afford them, is invaluable, Lohese said. If Burlington wants to welcome different cultures, races and ethnic groups, UVM needs to act swiftly to build more on-campus housing for its students, she said.
“If you want diversity, then there’s certain issues that need to be solved, right?” Lohese said.
