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Tuesday, November 17, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Oread
NO PLACE LI
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Lawrence, and payments were set at $410.17 a month. The title to the house was transferred to L&M of Hieronymus Inc.
"Lynn Meredith was the one who managed that property," housing inspector Swarts said. "We met there because I said I wanted to see it (the attic apartment) vacant. I told him to keep it vacant and not to rent it again."
Meredith could not be reached for comment after repeated attempts with the same username.
However, city records show that Meredith responded in 1986 to Swartz' request to inspect the attic apartment. In a letter dated January 21, 1986, the day before the attic apartment was condemned, Meredith wrote: "L&M wishes to upgrade each of its units and fully expects to comply with the minimum housing code every step of the way."
Once an apartment has been condemned, Sawries relies on the landlords to keep it closed until repairs are made. The city does not re-inspect.
"I take them at their word," Swarts said. "I just try to keep up with them and get back and find out if repairs have been made. Some of the minor ones fall through the cracks."
Swarts gets 150 complaints a year, most from the Oread and East Lawrence neighborhoods. And that's a fraction of the problem, she said.
"Housing code violations exist, I know, without a doubt," Swarts said. But we don't know the extent. There is an incredible amount of them out there.
"I've been in enough places to know how some of the population of Lawrence laws, and it's the pits," he said. "And it just that bad by myself, I cannot change that."
The city created Swarts' position in the office of minimum housing inspection 12 years ago. As the city's only housing inspector, she investigates tenant complaints and enforces violations of the housing code, which outlines minimum standards for health and safety.
Swarts can get involved only after a tenant has tried to solve a problem with a landlord. If a landlord refuses to solve the problem to the tenant's satisfaction, the tenant can file a written complaint with the city.
The city then inspects. If violations exist, the housing inspector notifies the landlord, who is given a set amount of time, usually within 30 days, to fix it. Enforcement provides include fines and imprisonment.
Swarts said that if the city went after every housing violation, it would be an enormous job.
"That means inspecting everything that exists," she said. "You'll need an incredible amount of manpower, and you'll have astronomical costs."
She said that many people, particularly landlords, would oppose rigid enforcement. Also, neighborhood associations would worry that stringent enforcement would prompt landlords to tear down old houses.
Caught in the middle are the students. But they don't complain much, Swarts said. Some fear reprisals from landlords. Others are indifferent.
"I feel a lot of the students don't care," she said. "If there isn't rain pouring in and the toilet flushes, and the hairdryer works when you plug it in, they are satisfied."
The rotted stairway leads to the attic apartment at 1319 Tennessee St. City housing officials cited it as a hazard when they condemned the attic in 1986.
Brandon Whitehead, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, stands in the doorway of his attic apartment at 1319 Tennessee St. The city condemned the apartment last year for more than 15 violations of the housing code.
Landlord says fix
By JULIE McCOURT Special to the Kansan
On the day before Christmas in 1986, Robert Munsch became one of the newest multi-property landlords in the Oread neighborhood, adjacent to the KU campus. He bought seven houses. Four days later, he bought two more.
Three of the houses were considered hazardous by city officials. They had been cited for unsanitary bathrooms, faulty wiring and general dilapidation, according to city records.
Munsch, manager of the meat department at Dillons, 1740 Massachusetts St., recently tore down the house at 1338 Ohio St. because it was cited this summer for 53 health and safety violations. He said he planned to fix up his other properties, which are on Ohio and Indiana streets.
"The ones I buy need a lot of work," Munsch said. "The reason I bought them is for retirement. They are an investment. If I can break even, that's all right. I'm not a big landlord."
In a neighborhood in which 63 percent of the properties are rentals, landlords range from owners of one or two houses to others like Munsch, who own several houses that have been converted into apartments. The Oread area just east of campus is a mix of historic houses and modern apartment complexes.
Munsch owns a total of 11 houses in
cread valued at $257,767 according
to FSSA.
Rents in the Oread neighborhood are as varied as the landlords. Most range from $125 a month for a room with a shared kitchen and bathroom to $252 a month for a four-bedroom house.
"It has to have a sink, a mirror and an outlet," Lange said. "I don't have any of those."
Sean Lange, Topea sophomore, pays Munsch $180 a month for his two-room apartment in the house at 1247 Ohio St., which the city has cited 'or 15 violations of the housing code.
Lange's apartment has a bathroom with hot water, but only a trickle of water. The shower stall and toilet are in a door, with a shower curtain as its door.
The house Lange lives in was cited by the city for health and safety violations on Oct. 30, 1986, two months before Munsch bought it. Records show that the house had illegal wiring, substandard plumbing and was in a state of "general dilapidation."
But Lange said the apartment was close to campus, "so it's kind of a tradeoff."
A cutaway of the house at 1032 Tennessee, owned
Overcrowding has packed KU housing for years
By TIM HAMILTON Special to the Kansan
When Sheila Van Buren started her first semester at the University of Kansas this fall, she slept in a recreation room in the basement of Ellsworth Hall. The St. Louis freshman had five roommates. After a month, they were given rooms. She remained alone.
Van Buren was one of 176 students who lived in temporary housing on campus this fall. Seven weeks after school started, KU housing officials placed her in a regular room in Ellsworth.
"It's better than having five other people, but it's still an inconvenience," she said. She had no telephone and no closets.
Anne Jeannin, a graduate student from Grenoble, France, also had to live in a temporary room this fall.
"It wasn't that quiet, and I had to upgustairs to use the bathroom. That kind of bothered me," she said. Jeannin said she had trouble understanding the housing placement process. After six weeks, space was
She lived on a wing in McCollun.
He undergraduates. Male
undergraduate.
found for her in a female wing of a graduate floor at McCollum.
As enrollment continues to rise, so does the demand for campus housing. And each year, students like Van Buren and Jeannin end up in temporary housing for several weeks until KU can find rooms for them.
Demand is high for the approximately 6,200 on-campus housing units owned by the University of Wisconsin's biggest student landlord in the city.
At the beginning of November, six of the 176 students who started the fall in temporary residence hall housing had not been placed in regular rooms. The six were offered permanent rooms in other housing units but chose to remain in their temporary rooms.
KU's temporary housing problem has been going on for more than 10 years. In August 1976, 60 students were placed in temporary quarters. By August 1979, the number had risen to 280 students. Last year, 220 students were placed in temporary
Temporary housing is provided in rooms that are generally used for other purposes such as recreation, ironing or visitors.
housing. And KU officials expect that when school starts next fall, 125 to 150 students may have to wait for permanent rooms.
G
Generally, there is a misunderstanding of what overcrowding means in student housing. If the scholarship halls are full, and there are 50 spots in the residence halls, does that mean there is a shortage? That's good management to be full.'
director of student housing
The scholarship halls also have had waiting lists. Earlier this month, the 400 scholarship hall spaces were full, and 67 women and 14 men were on waiting lists.
Deb Stafford, an assistant director of residential programs, said at least
90 percent of the students on the waiting list for scholarship halls were placed in residence halls or Jayhawker Towers. The others on the list live off campus.
Stouffer Place also has a waiting list for its 300 apartments. Ruth Swain, manager of Stouffer Place apartments, said people applied for housing at Stouffer because of its affordability. The complex is for married students and those with children.
"We've always got a long waiting list," said Swain. "We see a lot of people come to Stouffer because of our rates."
A one-bedroom apartment at Stouffer costs $160 a month, and a two-bedroom costs $180 a month.
Despite the housing waiting lists, Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said overcrowding was not a problem.
"Generally, there is a misunderstanding of what overcrowding means in student housing," Stoner said. "If the scholarship halls are full, and there are 50 spots in the residence halls, does that mean there is a shortage? That's good management to be full."
KU'S eight residence halls house 4,741 with 176 temporary spaces.
However, if private funds are raised through the Kansas University Endowment Association's current $100 million fund-raising drive, money might be available for concession of two scholarship halls, he said.
Stoner said that if KU built more student housing, the price of existing units would have to be increased to afford it. This would afford the affordableity of living on campus.
In the meantime, he said, housing is provided to every student who wants to live on campus and meets the deadline for application of admission. He said his office didn't mail housing information to students until the office was sure there was space for them. But, he said, the residence halls are overbooked because students who sign up don't always show up.
"They might not have received their first choice," Stoner said, "but I don't think they felt cheated."