BY ASSOCIATED PRESS | Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2008 12:00 am
MADISON - New student apartments around the University of Wisconsin-Madison have the potential to create a new housing spiral in neighborhoods left behind, some officials warn.
The worry is that as competition increases, older apartment houses will bring in lower rents or go vacant and that landlords will postponed maintenance in nearby neighborhoods.
City building inspector George Hank said that as students leave, some landlords won't be able to have the cash flow to maintain the buildings.
Leaders from neighborhoods, the university, nearby hospitals and others are seeking a $50,000 city grant to help plan preservation of the older structures possibly by converting them to owner-occupied housing for young families and workers.
The city wants to prevent neighborhoods from decaying and employers want to help workers find affordable housing near work.
Since 1999, developers have built 28 new student-oriented housing projects near campus with 4,600 bedrooms.
But there's much more to come. In the next three years or so, apartments with another 1,400 bedrooms will open in the 12-story University Square development and another 14-story building nearby.
"What happens when all these kids decide to move to University Square?" city council member Julia Kerr asked. "What happens when the kids don't live here anymore? That's what we want to get in front of."
The housing market has raced to keep pace with the university's growth.
In 1955, enrollment stood at 15,000 students. By 1969, it was 35,000. And since around 1980, it's been around 40,000. With only 7,000 dorm rooms, there is strong demand for housing in surrounding neighborhoods.
Single-family homes were carved into student rental units, which produced a healthy income for landlords. Older three-to-seven-unit houses in neighborhoods offer about 6,200 bedrooms.
But as new structures have gone up, the competition has been increasing and leaving less demand for the older, traditional rentals.
It's happened in one neighborhood on the border of Madison and Fitchburg already, when upper classmen and graduate students eventually found better options and the neighborhood fell into the spiral of vacancies, lax tenant screening and, eventually, a significant crime problem.
"There is a public good in not allowing a neighborhood to hit rock bottom," Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said. "That did happen in other places.
"When you intervene later, it costs more money and a lot of undesirable things happen before you get there."
But some families may want to come back, too.
In a recent survey of hospital and university employees, about 25 percent expressed interest in buying a home closer to work, UW-Madison associate vice chancellor Al Fish said.
Ohio State University, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania have successfully produced work force housing. But the obstacle in Madison would be bridging the gap between what employees can afford and the still-high cost of buying and renovating Downtown rental property.
City officials hope to create neighborhoods that mix new construction and rehabilitation, for a mix of students, young professionals and families, Kerr and others said.
"Students will always have a place in near Isthmus neighborhoods," Kerr said. "(But) if we can make a better case for people to live near their jobs, these neighborhoods will be stronger. These neighborhoods are great - and worth our
attention."