It’s not the first time that Vermont Interfaith Action and its housing allies, which include the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, have issued such a request. But the timing of this latest push — the group is holding a press conference today — is significant.
Mayor Miro Weinberger’s administration is renegotiating the city’s housing agreement with UVM. Under the previous agreement, signed in 2009 when Bob Kiss was mayor, UVM agreed to add another 563 beds on campus and to match any increase in students with the same increase in beds.
As the two parties confer behind closed doors, VIA executive director Debbie Ingram said it’s an opportune time to convince UVM to do more. “One mechanism to help take pressure off our housing market is for our local colleges to take more responsibility for being good community citizens and housing more of their students.”
And she noted that while Champlain College has committed to housing all of its students, UVM has resisted making such a pledge.
Erhard Mahnke, coordinator of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, agreed that the negotiations mark “a significant juncture.” Mahnke, a former city councilor, recalled that in response to a previous agreement reached in the early 1990s, UVM agreed to require sophomores — in addition to first-year students — to live on campus.
City officials estimate there are about 3,000 students in Burlington neighborhoods — 2,200 of whom attend UVM. Studies have shown that the large presence of students, who often aren’t particularly price-sensitive, puts upward pressure on housing costs and alters the character of what previously were family neighborhoods.
Noting that UVM houses 62 percent of its undergraduates and will add another 308 beds by 2017, planning relations manager Lisa Kingsbury said that the university has no active plans to go beyond that. But down the road, she said, “We’re interested in talking with third-party developers who may want to do housing on or off campus.”
As the part of the city’s Housing Action Plan, the city council and the mayor have said they want to create an additional 1,500 beds — on and off campus — for UVM and Champlain students over five years.
Asked about the ongoing negotiations with UVM, Weinberger provided a statement that didn’t reveal much: “I am hopeful that we will come to an agreement regarding housing issues. The focus of the discussions has been how to create 1,500 new beds for UVM students (and Champlain students)… UVM is already in construction on a net 300 new student on-campus beds. We are exploring a range of options — on and off campus — for achieving the balance of the goal.”
Kingsbury said they’ve been having “good discussions” but declined to go into greater detail.
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The City’s numbers don’t make sense and it is underrepresenting the problem. Only 2,200 UVM off-campus students? No way.
First of all, this year UVM mandated that all upperclassmen (Juniors/Seniors) and graduate students live off-campus, due to their tear-down of the “shoebox” dorms. They also sold the graduate housing at Fort Ethan Allen and those units are now open to the general public.
Current 2016 UVM Spring enrollment figures are: 11,334 students, plus an additional 996 non-degree students. You will find these numbers here at the UVM web site:
https://www.uvm.edu/~oir/s2016enr/s16enrre…
If UVM currently houses 62% of its undergraduates, this means that there are 3,632 off-campus. And when one adds in the graduates and medical students (almost 1,800 more), most of whom live off-campus, these numbers are even higher. While a small percentage may live at home or in other nearby communities, the City’s numbers still remain way to low. The actual numbers may very well be more than double what the City’s estimates are.
UVM is the single biggest engine of growth in Burlington . It’s students and employees contribute massively to the area economy . Yes they tighten the housing market but overall they are a huge benefit to businesses , services and actually improve the housing stock .
BTW , if you are going to make up numbers how about realizing that the UVM community lives in the GREATER Burlington area , not just the town itself . Why is this institution always the negative focus of the leftovers from the 60’s ?
Flame away .
The local colleges in general do contribute to the local economy, no argument there. But they also significantly tax City services…housing, police, fire, traffic, sewage, etc.
But in this article, the City is intentionally misrepresenting the impacts and how many students live off campus. The City is simply apparently lying.
In 1998, when UVM undergraduate enrollment was 7,154 (30% less than today), 2,566 UVM students were living off-campus. There is NO WAY that only 2,200 UVM students now live off-campus, when overall student enrollment has INCREASED by nearly 30%, not to mention several recent dorms were torn down. Plus, other colleges, such as Champlain, have expanded enrollments, as well.
The City is intentionally distorting the data.
You can find these historical figures on these pages/articles:
https://www.uvm.edu/~oir/f98enr/f98p03.gif
https://www.uvm.edu/~oir/sbinfo/ughis.pdf
http://sevendaysvt-test.newspackstaging.com/vermont/uvm-stu…