Aggie housing crisis strikes, again
School is starting, and many students are packing up and moving in to the apartments they signed up for last spring. At least, some of them are.
About 300 students suddenly found themselves without a home and with limited housing options three weeks ago after The Factory sent an email stating the complex’s construction would not be ready by fall semester.
“I felt panicked,” said Mikhail Maires, a sophomore in elementary education. “I was in denial and overall freaking out and rushing, rushing to find places to live.”
Many apartments and houses for rent received dozens of calls the day after the email came out as students and their parents tried to find new places to live. Many of those students were turned away because there were no rooms available.
“The following weeks, no joke, we were getting 40 or 50 calls a day from people looking for housing,” said James Broderick, a junior in civil engineering and one of Cambridge Court Apartments landlords. “We’ve been full since May. We felt bad saying ‘We don’t know anyone that’s open, sorry.'”
Students flooded the housing market, trying to find any available spaces they could find before classes started.
“I’ve heard that housing sent out an email asking those that are living on campus that have private rooms, if they would be willing to share,” said Brittany Huntington, a senior in family consumer science education. “I’ve also heard that they’ve made study rooms into bedrooms to accommodate students so that USU doesn’t have any students not coming here because of housing situations.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute also sent out a letter encouraging students and community members to share their homes and extra spaces if they were able to, Huntington said.
Because of the sudden shortage of housing, even students who hadn’t contracted with The Factory were having a hard time finding rooms to rent. Huntington had started looking for a new apartment to live in around the time the email was sent and found a lot of competition in the search.
“I honestly feel like it was a race,” Huntington said. “There were plenty of times that I would call on a place, like and they would get back to me maybe an hour later and say, ‘Oh we’ve already filled this spot.’ Or say, ‘Oh like five other girls have already called and one’s already coming to look at it and wants it.'”
A lot of the students looking for housing were international students, Broderick said, and other students had even paid The Factory rent for the full year.
“I think they should never have accepted rent payments,” Broderick said. “I can understand deposits, but to actually accept rent payment in full when they didn’t know that it was going to be open, and obviously it didn’t open, I think it was kind of ridiculous. That’s my opinion.”
Jordan Karren, a freshman in psychology, agreed.
“I thought it was pretty crazy,” Karren said. “To give out all that information and to get all those students in and to tell them, ‘Yes it’ll be done. Yes it’ll be done,’ and then all of a suddenly two weeks before be like, ‘Oh we’re not even close,’ like that’s pretty crazy to me. I don’t know how someone could do that.”
The Factory, also known as the Aggie Factory, began construction last year. It’s website promised a modern student living design with amenities such as a bowling alley, rock climbing, a movie theater and activities every month along with large rooms and fast WiFi.
Scheduled to open fall of 2014, many students had signed up to live in the new apartments. But students received a notice during the summer saying that the buildings wouldn’t be finished in time for fall semester.
One year later history repeated itself, and students are finding themselves in a similar situation.
“It’s just frustrating to the students and it’s like a not funny joke,” said Bethany Broderick, a senior in communication studies and landlord for Cambridge Court Apartments. “This has happened multiple times in Aggie Factory, so amongst the apartment community we’re just like, ‘Are you serious?’ Like again this has happened. Again.”
No date has been set yet for the complex to be finished.
—miranda.lorenc@gmail.com