UTU Petition for UT to Hold Problem Landlords Accountable

Dear Interim President Jim Davis and UT Austin Administration,

We, the University Tenants Union, represent students of the University of Texas at Austin in urging the administration to take immediate action on the issue of student housing.

At UT, we receive a world-class education that is affordable and accessible to students from diverse backgrounds. While progress has been made by waiving tuition for families earning less than $100,000, housing remains a major barrier to attracting and retaining top students.

Research shows that students who live on campus perform better and are more engaged. Yet, UT offers housing for only the first year, forcing over 85% of students to seek off-campus housing. Therefore, the challenges students face off-campus are not just the responsibility of private landlords, but also of the University.

By September of freshman year, students face pressure to sign leases for the following year without understanding the process or knowing their peers. Once students sign a lease, they risk becoming homeless due to months-long move-in delays, endure mold and pest infestations, and become displaced due to structural issues, all of which directly disrupt our education and wellbeing.

Student tenants are vulnerable. We are inexperienced renters, often underemployed, and lack the knowledge to advocate for our rights. We face unsafe conditions and financial strain in a system that prioritizes profit over student welfare.

UT must take responsibility for students’ housing experiences both on campus and off. We represent a coalition of students requesting the administration to commit to the following:

Short-Term (within 1 year)

1. Include students in housing decisions
   UT makes key housing decisions like configurations, features, pricing, locations, and developers with little student input. Students should be directly engaged in the decisions that will shape the places they may call home.
2. Identify and warn against problem landlords
   UT promotes landlords like Greystar despite a documented history of exploitative practices. UT should use objective criteria like instances of code violations, delayed move-ins, and structural issues to steer students away from problem landlords.

Medium-Term (within 3 years)

1. Revitalize UT’s Off-Campus Living Resources
   The current resources are useful, but lack some critical features that students want, like reviews of buildings and detailed information about SMART housing. UT should redesign the platform with student input to better meet their needs.
2. Expand UT’s Legal Services for Students
   Students face illegal practices from landlords with little recourse. UT should increase legal support by increasing the number of student attorneys, and expanding their services to include representation. As well, the University should explore student-tenant housing law clinics.
3. Partner with the City of Austin to improve off-campus housing and livability issues
   The University should collaborate with the City to solve critical livability issues like food access, accessibility for people with disabilities, and sharing data regarding off-campus living, like housing code violations.
4. Educate students on housing
   Most students are first-time renters. UT should provide mandatory housing education about on- and off-campus housing through orientation modules, workshops, and FIG presentations.
5. Ensure affordability of student housing
   Feedback from prospective and current students and families should determine affordability levels for housing. As well, UT should untangle housing scholarships from housing profit, which burdens some students for others’ benefit, and provide general financial transparency.
6. Improve accessibility and maintenance
   Despite maintaining an ADA transition plan since 1992, many UT buildings including dormitories remain inaccessible to disabled people. UT must rapidly correct these deficiencies.

Long-Term (within 10 years)

1. Double housing inventory by 2035
   A lack of on-campus housing leads to students’ having to live in expensive and often low-quality off-campus student housing. UT has proven it can build significant housing, with 1000s of units built under Pres. Davis’s tenure as COO. UT should continue to rapidly increase its on-campus housing, doubling its inventory by 2035.
2. Prohibit conflicts of interest among UT leadership
   Leadership at UT and the UT System (Presidents, senior leadership, Chancellors, and Board of Regents members) should not have financial or professional ties to student housing developers or private equity firms with a stake in student housing. Board of Regents members with such ties should be phased out at the end of their terms.

The University has expressed concern on addressing the student housing crisis; however, has done limited student engagement. We, the University Tenants Union, are committed to working with UT to achieve meaningful change. We urge the administration to take immediate action on these common-sense housing demands to support student well-being and success.