Dive Brief:
- Boston housing inspectors will visit 580 college student apartment addresses, culled from more than 25,000 addresses provided by 31 colleges, that appear to violate city rules against overcrowding.
- According to the Boston Globe, the inspectors will look for unsafe living conditions and violations of a zoning law that forbids more than four undergraduate students from living in the same apartment.
- While not every school in Boston provided the student address information, this is the first time the city has had the data.
Dive Insight:
Eviction of students will be a last resort only, if the inspectors find unsafe living conditions or too many residents in one unit, according to the city. First, the city will try to help the students find alternative housing, working with the landlords and universities. Unsafe and unsanitary living conditions for Boston college students is an issue that was highlighted by an investigative report by the Globe last year. Problems included rodents, broken windows, and non-working smoke detectors, and a Boston University student died two years ago in a fire at an apartment found to be in violation. Another BU student nearly died in a fire on the same street. In 2013, the city had 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students living in off-campus apartments, up 36% from 2006.