Remember the housing crunch? If you're a senior this year, you certainly do. Anyone who received that fateful notice from Resident Life or who walked by the tent city on McKeldin Mall must recall the unfairness and inconvenience that has resulted from the lack of on-campus housing this year. By now, it is probable that most of those directly affected have found accommodations in the environs of the campus. But that does not mean the roadblocks to affordable housing, no matter how slight or surmountable, are gone.
College Park Mayor Stephen Brayman has expressed a desire to institute a "best practice" to more effectively enforce overcrowding laws in the city. This new scheme would use input from the various parties involved- landlords, tenants and citizens. But the idea that this is a situation that requires an extra push of enforcement is simply not believable.
The rule on the books for the county is that no more than five unrelated people can live together in one house. Undoubtedly, this is a restriction that will be violated in some instances. But this does not necessarily mean that it creates a situation of "overcrowding," which is what the law was designed to prevent. The lifestyle and housing needs of students dictate that living in a bit of a squeeze can be advantageous - both financially and socially, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable. There have been no discoveries of huge numbers of students packed into a dungeon and living in squalor. So why not let the situation be?
The law need not be further enforced for several reasons. For one, it does not take into account the reality of the college setting, where a large portion of the renters are students. With the current housing situation, a little crowding might be preferable to forcing students to move further from the campus, or to pay more. And there also does not seem to be any immediate impetus that would call for stricter enforcement. It is ultimately the responsibility of landlords to determine who and how many can inhabit their properties. According to College Park Landlord's Committee chairman David Dorsch, "The landlords aren't policing their rental houses 24/7." Of course not, but the title of landlord does require one to have accurate knowledge of how many tenants one has, even if it is inconvenient.
Given the circumstances, then, the best policy for the time being would be a continued salutary neglect of the situation, until the housing crunch itself abates.
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