On Oct. 20, Westmoreland residents received a letter from Mr. Mike Eyster, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs & Director of University Housing, stating that “the University of Oregon intends to request action by the Oregon University System State Board of Higher Education to sell Westmoreland Apartments.” The next day, University Housing officials were quoted by the Oregon Daily Emerald as saying that there are two reasons for the sale: One is high maintenance costs, another is the high potential cost of repairing the major structural problems on the site.
Westmoreland tenants are shocked by this news.
Selling Westmoreland will not only hurt Westmoreland residents, but the entire University community. If the University sells the Westmoreland Apartments and Children’s Center, student families must face the miserable choice between letting their children and themselves starve in order to find a safe place to live, or quitting school altogether. In addition, the University, with 20,339 total students enrolled (6,013 graduate students), will have a greatly decreased amount of apartments, houses and childcare centers for student families to fight over. What a shame.
It is worth noting that the decision-making process of this unreasonable action is also against the “policies and procedures” on the Oregon Administrative Rules. OAR (571-022-0025) made it clear that before any non-emergency action may be taken by University Housing, it shall submit to the Family Housing Board for discussion and review all proposals in the areas such as “changes in long-range planning policies.” Westmoreland tenants and representatives never heard such an issue discussed until Oct. 20.
Westmoreland residents also noticed the information University officials released to the public is inaccurate and misleading. The following quotes and facts are from “University officials aim to sell Westmoreland Apartments,” ODE, Oct. 21:
1. “High maintenance costs and the high potential cost of repairing the major structural problems on the site.”
In fact, just as Mr. Eyster said in the letter, Westmoreland Apartments have been well maintained although they are 45 years old (some housing in the east campus area is 60 to 80 years old). Westmoreland even generates extra money to pay the commercial loan for Spencer View Apartments, according to last year’s Family Housing Board meetings.
As for the so-called major structural problem, it actually does not exist. Tenant representatives were told last year at the University Housing Board meetings that Westmoreland is well designed and the apartments could easily last for another 50 or even 100 years with good maintenance and management.
2. “We started out full, with a lot of demand, and that’s not really the case right now. … There are only 360 leaseholders (out of 404 apartments).”
It used to be true that University Housing allowed students from Lane Community College, Northwest Christian College and the Eugene Bible College to reside at Westmoreland when vacancies were available. Some of them are still current Westmoreland residents. But this is no longer true. Why did University Housing raise the eligibility standards if they are concerned with decreasing occupancy rate?
In addition, the dramatic rent increase of Westmoreland apartments from $370 to $445 (non-upgrade two bedroom apartments) this summer may also contribute to the decrease in the occupancy rate.
3. “We started out as family housing, and we are not really housing very many families. Now only 13 percent of the current residents have children.”
There are many children born at Westmoreland, but not accounted for. In addition, does this mean that only those students with children are actually eligible for University Family Housing? What about married couple without children, or non-traditional student families?
4. “Only 25 international students currently live in Westmoreland.”
University Housing is dead wrong about the number of international students currently living in Westmoreland. In fact, there are more than 60 Chinese students with their families living in Westmoreland, plus more than 30 students from other countries such as India, Japan, Korea, Benin, Togo, Italy, Poland and Russia.
5. Mike Eyster has said that Westmoreland residents with children will be given priority to sign a new lease in Spencer View or East Campus student housing. However, official information shows that even if all units of Spencer View (272 units) and East Campus (approx. 77 units) were available, it is still not enough to hold all the current Westmoreland residents (404 units), not to mention the many students currently on waiting lists.
People choose Westmoreland
because it is probably the most affordable and safest housing in town. Westmoreland residents have very limited income. Most of the American students in Westmoreland live on financial aid and loans. For many international graduate students, the monthly GTF salary ($450 to $1,300 after taxes) is their only income. By contrast, the rent of a two-bedroom apartment at Spencer View and East Campus ($580 to $800) is typically more than $200 higher. The so-called priority of leases offered by University Housing, without guarantee and affordability, means nothing.
Here we ask the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, all students, faculty and staff, interested parties and neighborhood associations join us to stop this from happening.
The Westmoreland Tenants Council