Cutting housing costs -- for a price

By Liz Weeker

Last year, Rob Wyatt paid $400 a month to live in the basement of a house on Fremont Street. His room had a dirt floor and a ceiling so low he was unable to stand up while walking around. The only way in was through a bulkhead door opened from the backyard. Wyatt rolled carpet over the dirt, but his walls were not insulated, and he had no central heat.

"One time I came home, and there was a bee's nest and like 300 bees flying around the room," said Wyatt. His friend, who was subleasing another room in the basement at the time from Wyatt for $100 per month, layered himself in clothes before throwing in a Raid bug bomb.

"That was the only way that we could live affordably within reasonable distance of school," said Wyatt. "I liked the fact that it was only $400. That was the only thing I liked."

Students' names have been changed in this story to protect their privacy.

By comparison, students pay approximately $727.50 per month, excluding dining plans, to live on campus in a standard double, according to the annual housing cost.

This year, as a senior, Wyatt lives at the complex known to students as the Lafayette Apartments. "It is far superior," he said. "I have heat and my own bathroom, and I don't have to walk outside to get to my room."

Students like Waytt are sacrificing quality living conditions, and in some cases safety, to cut costs and beat steep prices. But city inspectors warn that living in structures that are not meant to be lived in -- basements, garages and sheds -- can be dangerous. "It's not safe because who knows what's in there," said Richard Ruiz, a senior inspector for the city of Santa Clara. "Is it a propane heater to give it heat? Do they have electrical? Do they have plumbing? " Ruiz also warned that garages might not have safe exits and cited fires as a potential hazard.

According to city code, a residential unit must have a kitchen and bathroom and meet other standards, like required heating, natural light and square footage required per persons living in a room.

Habitable rooms must have no less than 70 square feet, and where more than two people occupy a room for sleeping purposes, the floor area must be increased by 50 square feet for each person in excess of two.

This year, at least six students have lived on Bellomy Street in illegal structures like garages and tool sheds, including two who were evicted by police.

At least one student lives off campus in the garage of a university-owned property, according to County Assessor property records.

"I love it," said Danny Travis, who is leasing the house the school owns. "I mean, it's cold. It could be warmer. The walls are paper thin. Aside from that, it's a lot of space." Travis pays $600 each month for rent. He said his landlord doesn't know he lives in the garage.

Travis also said in an e-mail to The Santa Clara that the exhaust for the house heater is located in the garage and pumps CO2 into his room when it is running. For this reason, his housemates do not run the heater when he is home. To keep warm, Travis instead uses his own small space heater.

Citations and evictions

While students like Wyatt and Travis are living in illegal conditions, landlords like Greg Yoder are maintaining a "don't ask" policy with their student tenants.

"If there is a complaint or a problem with code enforcement, then they (the tenants) have to deal with it, not me," said Yoder, who leases two properties to Santa Clara students. While Yoder typically prefers to not "police" his tenants, he said he has dealt with the city regarding building code enforcement and party complaints.

Ruiz explained that city inspectors generally hold the property owner responsible for code violations and can issue fines of up to a maximum of $500 per infraction.

But it's likely that the only way a landlord could be held responsible for a code violation would be if a tenant reported his or her landlord to city inspectors or police. This, however, often results in the tenants' eviction by city officials, so tenants have little incentive to report illegal conditions.

City Managing Inspector Terry Schmidt explained that inspectors can cite either a tenant or a landlord for violating a housing code, but only if they are granted access to the property by either the landlord or the tenants.

And often even after a tenant calls to report substandard living conditions, he or she shies away from following through with their complaint when they learn that they will have to leave their residency if the inspector validates their complaints, he said.

Tenants can be held soley responsible for violations in cases where the landlord is unaware that his or her tentants are living illegally. Police officers evicted and fined two students in November for living in a garage on Bellomy Street.

Lt. Mike Sellers, a Santa Clara Police spokesman, said that officers asked the students to vacate the garage, but returned one week later to find them still living there.

"People cannot live in uninhabitable dwellings like that," Sellers said. "Generally they'll get a warning and if the officer returns and they still haven't taken advice, they will be subject to being cited."

But Sellers also said that offices generally inspect housing conditions only when they have been alerted by a landlord or they are investigating a criminal offense.

"I knew that we weren't supposed to be living there, but I feel that it wasn't anything wrong," said Thomas Rynaski, one of the students who was cited by police.

Bob Griffin, another student who still lives on the Bellomy Street property, said that when he and his housemates did their initial walk-through with their landlord, they were told that the garage was a "study area" and that no one was supposed to live there. But Griffin said there were beds in the garage, and it was obvious people lived there.

"There's a zoning order that mandates that a garage be used for a garage. It cannot be used for sleeping purposes," said Schmidt.

Still, Schmitdt explained that inspectors don't always have access.

"If we're allowed to investigate, then we certainly do have avenues of enforcement," said Schmitdt. Those avenues can include fines for the landlord and eviction and or fines for the tenant.

But if the violation goes unreported or cannot be corroborated, Ruiz said there is little that inspectors can do.

Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger said she is concerned about the conditions students are choosing to live in off campus.

"Part of our challenge, and what we've been trying to do, is educate students about their rights as a renter," said Rosenberger.

The renter rights Rosenberger referred to are California laws specifying a landlord's responsibility to make sure that the property is habitable.

'The college experience'

But while city and university officials are concerned for students' safety in substandard housing, students like senior Mona Reynolds look at their rooms as part of the "college experience."

Reynolds lives in a tool shed converted into a room measuring 7 feet 2 inches by 11 feet 3 inches. She also has to walk through her backyard to use the bathroom. She has electricity, but not central heating. Her room barely fits the city's space and occupancy standards, which require a room to be no less than 7 feet in any dimension.

"I only pay $445 a month," she said. "Everything else around campus is so expensive that finding a cheap place to live, regardless of how crappy it is or how poor it is -- it's just really nice to find a really cheap place off campus."

Reynolds described one incident when she was locked out of her room, and she was able to open her door by pushing it forcibly. A few weeks ago, her landlord installed a dead bolt on her door.

There are a number of different nicknames for her room, Reynolds said laughing.

In the year and a half that she has lived in the shed, she has heard it referred to as the "troll hut," the "spank tank" or the classic "tool shed."

"I mean, it's not the ideal place for someone to live, but in college, it works," said Reynolds. "I would never choose to live in a place like that after I graduate."

Reynolds isn't alone in her willingness to endure poor living conditions during her college years.

"It's almost endearing," senior Eleanor Ford said of the rats, moldy bathroom and rotten porch in her house on Washington Street. "I wouldn't want to live in a new house. I love our house."

Both Ruiz and Schmidt encouraged students to call the city's planning and permit department if they are concerned they are living in conditions that aren't up to code.

"They need to call us. They need to make us aware that there's a problem, and we have to have an ability to enter to validate it," said Ruiz. "We don't want anybody living in a dangerous situation."

Contact Liz Weeker at (408) 554-4546 or eweeker@scu.edu.