Quest for off-campus housing continues

By Ashley Ritchie

There comes a time in a person's life when they are forced to go out on their own and do the wretchedly unthinkable: search for housing. For most of us at Santa Clara University, that time is at the middle of our sophomore year when we have to prepare for life as an upperclassmen.

I am currently in the process of braving this petrifying battle.

In the midst of my housing search, I have realized some less than attractive aspects about the living situations in Santa Clara.

First of all, how much brown-nosing does one require in order to get in "good" with a landlord? If anyone knows the answer to this question, I'd love to know because I have thrown out just about all of the brown-nosing I can and what have I gotten in return? Nothing. I am left with the inquiry of what exactly I am supposed to do in order to make something happen. I have heard of individuals that are currently living in Alvisos that bought flowers for the landlord and another group of housemates in Maple Lanes taking their landlord out for coffee. While I am ready and willing to subject myself to this kind of flattery, I have to ask myself what exactly does this accomplish for the landlord. Why do they watch these students worship them and laugh in their poor, pathetic faces when all they want is a warm room to sleep in and a roof over their heads?

There are currently 2,080 students living in the dorms, according to campus housing. With that figure, one may reasonably assume that half of these students are sophomores and are trying to find somewhere to live for their junior year. So that is about 1040 people trying to find housing, plus a handful of freshman who want it for their sophomore year. That is a lot of people and not a lot of houses. This is where the extreme butt kissing comes into play.

Secondly, it is not even as if these houses are replicas of the sanitary homes that most have grown up in. Trust me, just because you find a house that seems fairly decent does not mean that six months prior to your moving in, it wasn't infested with rats and whatever gross substances that people leave behind. The filth can be covered up, but the memories and dirty remnants of bad tenants will forever be lurking under your floors and in your closets mocking your attempts to rid your house of foul matter.

When house searching, we must always keep the fact close at hand that our houses will not resemble the home that we grew up in. Our homes, for the most part, were not used as public party houses, urinals and places where vomit is welcomed everywhere and anywhere in plentiful amounts. However, I guarantee that these houses at one point or another have been for these purposes. If you don't believe me, just check out the conditions of the house next time you are at a party and keep in mind that someone actually lives there and watches television on the couch that is being jumped on.

All dirt and nastiness aside, I wish all of you who are out and about prowling the house circuit the best of luck. No matter what house you end up choosing as your home for the next couple of years, remember to be thankful. Some people were not so lucky to even find a house. I suppose their brown-nosing was not quite up to par.