Off-campus living may strain town-gown relations

Some residents believe the nearly 5,000 students living off campus create neighborhood instability and transience. Although students often complain about the quality of life in West Philadelphia, many residents feel that the large number of students living off campus causes several of the area's problems. The approximately 5,000 University students living off campus in the University City area have changed the nature of this once traditional residential community, and residents have expressed concerns that extend beyond common complaints about noise or trash. Spruce Hill Community Association President Patrick Starr said recently that students moving in and out of the area every year cause a high transient rate for the neighborhood and creates instability. He said one of the neighborhood's biggest problems is the low homeowner occupancy rate -- University City's 10 percent homeowner occupancy rate is strikingly lower than the city's 55 percent average. History Professor Lynn Lees, who has lived in West Philadelphia for 22 years, said the presence of off-campus students has "changed the neighborhood profoundly" by making the area's real estate market into more of a rental business. "It used to be an area of primarily single-family houses," Lynn said. "Now it is almost completely divided into apartment units because of student demand." She added that although students could not be blamed for off-campus crime, they are more attractive "targets" for criminals than other neighborhood residents. And Carol Scheman, the University's vice president for government, community and public affairs, noted that students living off campus create instability for the area by dividing up single-family houses and driving up rent within the neighborhood. She explained that Cambridge, Mass. -- home to Harvard University -- is the most comparable university community to Penn's West Philadelphia, but is a more stable area than University City in terms of such factors as crime. Scheman added that the biggest reason for the difference between the two areas is "that all of Harvard's undergraduates live on campus." But she stressed that the University is working to improve its relationship with the area by studying "how we integrate undergraduates into community living." Community Relations Director Glenn Bryan agreed that "any neighborhood is going to be safer when there are less transients," but maintained that the University must face the reality of having large numbers of students choosing to live off campus. "We're faced with what we have," he said. "It's important now that we develop more engagement with the neighborhood." But residents and University officials stressed that off-campus students also have a positive affect on the neighborhood by patronizing local businesses and populating the streets at night. Off-Campus Living Director Michaela Farcas summed up residents' attitude towards off-campus students as being one of "mixed feelings." "There are some very conscientious students who are good neighbors," she said. "But community residents have had to deal with students living a very different lifestyle than them."