The G.S.O. and NYPIRG are pleased to announce the first student researched and written Off Campus Renter's Guide. The guide is a result from a joint project between the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and Graduate Student Organization. The guide offers a snapshot of Stony Brook student perceptions regarding the current off-campus housing situation in Suffolk County, Nassau County, and New York City. It also serves as a resource to help prospective student tenants make smart choices about off-campus living. Together with the G.S.O. Legal Clinic and the Graduate Student Emergency Loan Fund, the Off-Campus Renter's Guide is one of many new resources and programs generated from the work of the G.S.O. during the 2005-2006 academic year.
The idea for the guide emerged out of discussions between Dan Woulfin and other student activists across the state. The project originated in 2003-2004 in the S.U.N.Y. Cortland’s NYPIRG Consumer Action Project. It was successfully adopted the next year by the Syracuse NYPIRG chapter. After hearing about the survey and its reports, Woulfin believed that this was the perfect project to help all students at Stony Brook gain a better idea of the off-campus rental market.
When Woulfin became chair of the Housing Committee, he immediately started working with the NYPIRG Project Coordinator, Scott Zotto, to get the project off the ground. The partnership worked well: The Housing Committee was able to fulfill its purpose by investigating off-campus housing conditions and NYPIRG added its expertise in consumer issues to create the guide from 287 surveys.
The eventual Stony Brook survey and guide differed from previous guides in a very significant way. The surveys were put online by GSO and advertised with the help of student groups (both undergraduate and graduate). Therefore, this guide reached a larger student sample than previous guides had (approximately 10 percent of those who responded came from Nassau County and New York City).
The guide itself stresses that even though many students are satisfied with their apartments, the possibility of serious problems with off-campus rentals exists. Twenty-three percent of respondents felt they were not getting their money’s worth from their current housing. Also, thirty one percent of respondents reported they were renting without a lease. To further educate the Stony Brook tenant population, the guide ends with two sections on tips for renting, highlighting among other things the new GSO Legal Clinic and NYPIRG’s Small Claims Court Action Center (631-632-6458). NYPIRG also provides a workshop concerning your rights as a tenant called "Smart Moves." To find out more, contact them at 631-632-6457 or by email at stonybrook@nypirg.org.
By Dan Woulfin
Dan Woulfin was Chair of the GSO Housing Committee for the 2005-2006 academic year and a primary author of the Renters Guide.
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