By Andrew Applewhite, Texas A&M Student Body President 23-24
Originally published in the BCS Eagle.
Should residents be treated differently based on their occupation or familial status? Can families and students coexist? Even in the same neighborhood? For Austin’s City Council, the answer is a resounding yes. They recently passed a resolution calling to eliminate occupancy restrictions to fight their affordability crisis.
College Station, on the other hand, is preparing to crack down on unrelated residents living together in groups larger than four. While Austin realizes that laws shouldn’t be applied selectively based on unchangeable characteristics like family ties, it remains unclear if College Station shares that mindset.
Under current College Station city code, families may live with any number of relatives, regardless of bedrooms. Other residents may live with a maximum of three roommates, even if they have a six-bedroom house. Lifestyles, no matter how different, should not result in unequal treatment under the law.
Cities across the state have increasingly adopted occupancy laws based on health and safety standards instead of older consanguinity-based restrictions. Cities like Dallas, San Antonio and Houston all regulate occupancy through reasonable standards such as number of bedrooms or square footage. This would be a welcomed change in College Station, where 52% of residents live in nonfamily households.
However, as student body president, I have seen how this ordinance uniquely impacts students. Amidst a rising affordability crisis, many of my fellow Aggies struggle with the increasing cost of food, housing, and education. As a result, some students are resorting to creative solutions, often sharing a five or six-bedroom home with an equal number of students.
These “criminals” are guilty of common sense. This common sense, however, comes with a steep price. Starting June 1, these Aggies may be fined $1,200 for simply living with their friends.
The so-called no-more-than-four ordinance is not intended to be malicious. Many of its supporters frequently and honestly state they are pro-Aggie. I believe most of them are pro-Aggie at heart. Some are former students themselves.
Through this ordinance, they express a personal preference. A preference to live away from university students in a town founded because of a university and, by extension, its students. This assumes no ill will on their part. Yet, when examining matters of public policy, the question is not intent; it is effect.
What then can students turn to? Not dorm rooms. A&M turned away 2,000 students this past fall. Apartments? Only for the rich. Not many students can afford $1,000 a month, after all.
And for those students who need more affordable housing, prepare to stand in the back of a very long line. In an ideal housing market, the average renter takes approximately 10 weeks to find a new rental. For students at A&M, the search begins at the start of the fall semester, with many signing their leases as early as October for next year. Hesitate, and you might lose out to another student.
Students tend to be renters with lower incomes than families. Nationally, college students make around $3,000 to $13,000 a year. And at Hispanic Serving Institutions like A&M, they increasingly come from families in the bottom two income quintiles. Higher costs have an outsized impact on those with lower income.
Over the past decade, rent has increased by 25 percent, but the key metric is housing burden or in other words how much money is spent on housing. Looking at data compiled by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing, 59% of renters in College Station pay more than 30% of their income on rent. A full 33% pay more than 50% of their income on rent. Put differently, it takes 2.7 students working full time at minimum wage to cover the cost of a two-bedroom apartment.
More costs, more problems for students
More costs make it difficult to afford other essentials like food and textbooks. At A&M, students pay an average of $900 a year for educational resources. That’s $100 more than students at the University of Texas and Alabama. This results in 65% of students neglecting to buy textbooks due to high cost.
Let’s dispel this fiction that no-more-than-four will only increase costs for students. Although much of the present rhetoric appears to make this a student vs. resident argument, in reality, it’s supply vs. demand. Restricting housing options will drive up rental costs for everyone.
For example, a six-bedroom house limited to four renters will require those four tenants to pay for two empty bedrooms, decreasing supply, and at the same time force two renters to compete for housing elsewhere, increasing demand. These two market forces lead to higher prices.
Policies often have unintended consequences regardless of how attractive their initial promise may seem. Restrictions on occupancy do more than keep students out of neighborhoods. They keep food out of their pantries and the cost of tuition out of reach. I assure you students do not prefer living in bunk beds, but economic necessity trumps personal preference.
If not, we look forward to election day. Over 1,700 students signed a petition opposing no-more-than-four. With student’s homes on the line, city council seats may be too.
We are scared. We have an affordability crisis. And come June 1, we face fines up to $2,000.
City of College Station, can you help us?