Dear editor,

I think the complaints by some landlords and their advertisers about Syracuse University’s new off-campus listings website are rather telling.

Donna Glassberg, the owner of OrangeHousing.com, likens the certificate of compliance to having a driver’s license. She states that simply having a driver’s license doesn’t make you a safe driver. I agree. The housing codes, like a driver’s test, set the lowest possible hurdle that one should overcome to be so much as allowed to rent a place. It is a bare minimum standard of quality.

And that’s the point — we need to know that the people we are renting from follow the codes.  This is a real problem right now. SU’s listings website is the only one with that requirement.  OrangeHousing admits that they don’t require renters to follow the bare minimum standard of quality set by the City of Syracuse. Even now they have listings from renters with a well-established history of substandard housing and exploitative practices.

Those who complain that they don’t want any requirement to get a certificate may as well want to drive without earning their license. Those who allow one to advertise listings without that requirement may as well be cops who don’t stop dangerous drivers.

Without a means to enforce the codes, there is no assurance that the rules are followed, let alone that the options — or the roads — are safe. There are no patrol cars, no one to stop people from driving on the wrong side of the highway. And so things devolve to a state where SU tenants must, united, protest openly the status quo.

The SU listings website is a first step — if you use that website you know that at least the minimum standards are met.

When we started working with SU on the creation of the website, our aim at the GSO was to ensure that all students could find safe, affordable housing offered by landlords who played fair and by the rules. This website and its requirements get us closer to that goal.

Finally, and for the record — as part of the committee that ultimately selected Off-Campus Partners to work with SU on this project, we provided OrangeHousing with an opportunity to submit a proposal as part of the Request for proposal process. They declined to submit a proposal.

Sincerely,

Jack Wilson, Graduate Student Organization President

Published on February 6, 2019 at 10:39 pm