LETTER: Campus Housing Shortage Squeezes Neighborhoods
Both long-term residents and students stressed by College's decisions and City's inaction
(Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed by the writer are not necessarily those of the Williamsburg Independent.)
The Neighborhood Balance Committee (NBC) was a committee set up 5 years ago by City Manager Andrew Trivette to address how to take good care of the downtown neighborhoods of Williamsburg. I was part of a group composed of landlords, residents, students, William and Mary staff, and City officials, and we labored over a year and half to review ideas and to make very specific recommendations. Yet 5 years later, very little has been done, and the downtown neighborhoods have slid further OUT of balance between owner occupants and landlord rentals.
One of the “easiest” recommendations was to put out a Town and Gown report. After reading this year’s report presented to Council, and discussing this with several Council members, I am quite concerned. It is clear that no one talked to downtown residents about the real issues involving the large number of students living in residential communities adjoining the campus. The report indicated that the primary problem for these historic neighborhoods was “noise.” It ignored the far more pressing problems of decreasing and destabilizing owner occupancy, rental units in bad or even dangerous condition, increased traffic and parking demands, over occupancy, and encroachment by development. All of these issues have been well known to the College and the City for years.
The report didn’t highlight the real repercussions of the College flatlining their housing, despite the student population growth over many years. Clearly an overriding problem for the City has been the laid back approach of the College to provide for or actively encourage sufficient affordable housing (on or off campus), to demand safe, legally compliant housing for all students regardless of where they live, to extend the Honor Code enforcement to both on and off campus behavior, and to reckon with the effects of driving alcohol consumption into the adjoining neighborhoods. But instead of pushing back, the City has enabled this disengagement by approving new high density housing (albeit largely unaffordable for students), failing to successfully enforce critical ordinances and failing to enact the recommendations of the NBC in a timely manner. These significant recommendations ranged from enlisting the college to help fund additional City staff for enforcement, to creating funds to help new home buyers buy or refurbish older homes downtown.
In today’s financial climate, some of the NBC recommendations now may need to start on a smaller scale. Yet there are additional recommendations and new ideas which cost little, but would be effective. These include Rent Ready, a listing of landlords agreeing to meet increased safety and inspection standards (in the works), establishing an ongoing work group coordinating the various City departments that interact with downtown neighborhoods, and sharing ideas with other Virginia college towns for enforcement as well as advocacy. The City can, and should do a better job at protecting its historic neighborhoods and standing up for both its short and long term residents.
Nancy Bolash
Mrs. Bolash was an original member of the Williamsburg Neighborhood Balance Committee, and is currently the coordinator of the Downtown Neighborhood Alliance.