Off
Campus Living
Resources
Mission Statement
The Off campus Student Resident Task Force is committed to improving the safety and well being of college students living in privately owned houses and apartments by building positive relationships with students, property owners, neighbors, municipalities and other interested parties in-order to raise awareness of individual and shared responsibilities relative to students living in of campus housing. By accomplishing this mission, we will ensure students are living and learning in a safe, clean and responsive environment.
Goal Achievement Strategies
ADDRESS FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY ISSUES
Disseminate information regarding safety concerns for students living independently in off campus property to parents, students and school administrations:- Target parents with information
- Develop information for students on safe living practices
- Develop information for students on safe housing
Provide coordination for listing properties offered to students that are in compliance with local and NY State law. Match student accessible information of off campus housing with a list of compliant housing:
- Use housing information provided by the local jurisdiction to match with actual advertised and rented property offerings
- Where there is a campus off campus housing listing, require that all housing listed be verified as being in compliance with applicable local and NY State laws.
Identify properties offered to students that are not in compliance with local and NY State law:
- Provide a reporting system/mechanism for students to report proprieties that are not in maintained in compliance with or become non-compliant.
- Provide a reporting system for the public to report properties that are not maintained in a safe condition.
Provide a means for students seeking off campus residence to identify housing that is in compliance with local and NY State law:
- Limit property advertisement on campus to those that have been verified by the property owner as compliant with local and NY State law.
- Provide students with a copy of the property owner’s verification that their property is in compliance with local and NY State law.
Provide students living in off campus rental properties and off campus rental property owners a resource for resolving property concerns:
- Provide a responsive connection to the local authority having jurisdiction.
- Provide a responsive connection to the school for property owners and neighbors who are experiencing fire and or life safety concerns with student renters.
Invite property owners to participate in an information sharing forum for the purpose of identifying and positively affecting quality of life concerns affecting neighborhoods:
- Develop a mutually beneficial system for information exchange between schools and property owners.
- Create a resource that is recognized as a means of securing safe housing for students living independently off campus.
Identify non-compliant housing:
- Provide a means for students seeking off campus housing to screen out housing that may be non-compliant with local and or NY State law.
Strengthen existing law governing rental property:
- Enhance language in existing law to more clearly define use of rental properties, i.e. Multiple dwelling, Rooming House
- Advocate changes in multiple residence laws to support needs
- Increase awareness of consequences for breaking laws regulating rental property and property maintenance.
