University of Vermont grad students say they love living in the brick townhouses and former military officer quarters at Fort Ethan Allen. Rent is affordable and residents, who had to spend time on waiting lists to get a place there, have formed the tight-knit kind of community where families take turns babysitting for one another.
So when UVM officials told residents that a sale is underway of 31 apartments and they also plan to sell the other 89, students were taken aback. They’ve since delivered letters signed by nearly every resident to president Tom Sullivan and the board of trustees. Earlier this week, they started an online petition asking UVM to provide additional family housing to replace the units being sold.
UVM is in negotiations to sell its Ethan Allen Apartments in Essex — stately officers quarters constructed in 1895 and 1933 — to the nonprofit affordable housing developer, Champlain Housing Trust. It’s also contemplating selling the County Apartments, located a stone’s throw away in Colchester.
Vice provost for student affairs Annie Stevens told Seven Days that students won’t have to move right away. They have leases that will last through the academic year, and CHT’s chief financial officer, Michael Monte, confirmed that students will likely be able to stay even longer. “Our goal will be to work with the students,” he said. “Nothing will happen immediately, and everything will have adequate notice.”
UVM wants to house graduate students closer to campus, Stevens said, noting that in a survey, people responded that the five-mile commute to campus was inconvenient and, at times, unsafe.
The university also has a financial incentive to sell — many of the aging buildings need repairs, according to Stevens.
Champlain Housing Trust, which receives hundreds of housing applications a month for only a handful of available units, plans to turn the complex into a mix of homes and apartments. Monte said it’s likely some students would qualify for them.
Stevens suggested another possibility: As undergrads move into new on-campus dorms expected to open in 2017, additional spots will open up for grad students at the Redstone Lofts and Apartments and at the Quarry Hill apartments in South Burlington.
But current Fort Ethan Allen residents are looking for a firmer commitment. They point out that if their present housing isn’t replaced, they may add to the housing pressure creating Burlington’s infamous high rental prices. And they emphasize the strong sense of community at “the Fort,” which, according to UVM’s website, is occupied by student-families, grad students and nontraditional undergrads.
Callie Linehan, a first-year med student who lives with her husband and son, said her family had been struggling to find an affordable place to live when they got off the waiting list for Fort Ethan Allen housing. “Needless to say, we were ecstatic to find out we could be here in family housing, and devastated when we found out two weeks later that it would be sold out from under us,” Linehan wrote in an email.
Another med student, Kelsey Sullivan, moved into the apartments with her husband and dog in May 2014. She takes the bus to school and described the arrangement as “super convenient.” Sullivan said residents have potlucks and brunches together and that for families, in particular, the prospect of having to find a new home is daunting.
Some international students live at Fort Ethan Allen, and Shashank Jain, a chemistry grad student from India, explained that many of them face particular challenges when looking for housing. Often they lack a credit history and landlord references, and the terms of their visas prevent them from working off-campus to supplement their academic stipends. “All my friends are freaking out,” said Jain. “They should come up with an alternative plan for students.”
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A lack of foresight and the result will be a worsening of the Burlington rental market. Until we get rent stabilization the rents will continue to go skyward as investors take everyone else to the cleaners.
UVM thought they could make some quick and easy money without anyone making a fuss. It seems like they were wrong. Perhaps the University should consider the fact that these students they’re disenfranchising are going to be their alumni some day, and perhaps they’ll be less inclined to be generous when the University comes looking for donations.
This alumnus and a a handful of others I know are also very distressed by this rash and inappropriate decision. UVM claims to want to get the people they help educate to stay in VT after they graduate. Lots won’t no matter what. But for those on the fence, living in a nice neighborhood like this one can be a good way to get people to put down some roots. I hope there is some chance they could re-think this. Though it seems like they went out of their way to make sure they would not have that chance. I sure know what I’ll be talking about next time they hit me up for a contribution!
Champlain Housing Trust gets housing for a much larger group of people. This will allow people not associated with the University to have the same chance for these apartments as the students. Much of the housing crunch in this area is due to the fact that the local institutions of higher learning have not provided adequate on campus housing for their students. The crunch is caused by the colleges. If they have a place on campus for these tenants, it’s an all around win-win situation.
@Barbara The problem is that UVM doesn’t have a place on campus that grad students can afford. PhD students do get stipends but even before the $1850 student fee ($2550 w/student health center insurance) it’s not possible to live in the places UVM wants to send grad students, namely Redstone Lofts/Quarry Hill apartments.
Also, how does opening housing options which are already at capacity and have a long wait list to all lower income families, not just students, relieve any of the current housing issues in Burlington?