City Council legislation that forces landlords to closely regulate students living in off-campus housing around Saint Joseph's University was recently expanded to include areas around Temple University.
The bill, passed on Feb. 5, revises the city's housing code to form areas known as "educational housing districts," in which students living off campus are more closely regulated and supervised by their landlords.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell -- who represents the district that includes Penn -- seemed skeptical about the idea of a similar bill being instituted for the University. Representatives from her office said that the school's relationship with the community and the work of the police force would likely prevent such a measure from passing.
The legislation says that historical districts are created to "ensure that adult supervisors acting as agent for the landlord live in the building."
These supervisors have "the responsibilities that a resident [adviser], student supervisor or similar person has in the on-campus student dormitories" and are also there to ensure that no laws are being broken, the bill continues.
And although the council is not currently considering an educational housing district in University City, it is not out of the question since Blackwell is the lone dissenting voice.
"By all means, it can come to Penn," political analyst Jeff Jubelirer said. He added that the rapidly growing Penn community is similar to Temple and stressed that Penn students, like students at Temple and St. Joseph's, do not have much voting power as members of the community.
Students are "not eligible to vote against" bills like this because many are not registered to vote in Philadelphia, and others "just don't care enough," Jubelirer said.
Proposed by Councilman Michael Nutter, the measure affecting St. Joseph's was originally passed by the City Council in September 2002.
Off-campus housing providers are now also responsible for regulating parking around the housing units and for creating a "security plan" for the area.
It "sounds like it's baby-sitting," Jubelirer said. People are not likely to be as willing to live in these areas "when they have 'Big Brother' watching over them."
The legislation was passed in response to complaints from communities surrounding the schools regarding noise, lack of parking and other inconveniences.
Alan Krigman, a housing provider in University City, feels that the proposed City Council policy infringes on student and landlord rights.
City Council "already [has] laws to take care of that. It shouldn't matter if they're students or not," Krigman said. He added that authorities and realtors should "take care of that without putting restrictions on [students'] liberties."
