Editorial: Students must step up to improve housing conditions

By 2018, two upscale apartment buildings will stand in Oakland where two empty lots currently reside.

One of those projects, from Texas developer Campus Advantage, will be a 197-unit apartment building at 3407 Forbes Ave. The other, SkyVue Apartments, is constructing their 389-unit complex at 3333 Forbes Ave.

While both buildings are in the heart of student-concentrated Oakland, they’re catering to a young professional’s budget rather than a student’s — SkyVue’s lowest available rent is $1,585 per month, and Campus Advantage’s ranges from $750 to $1,350 per month, depending on the unit.

Pitt students do not stand to benefit from these two new buildings. There’s a stark contrast between a South Oakland home and the luxury apartment complexes Campus Advantage and SkyVue are erecting on Forbes.

If we want improvements in the South Oakland housing market, we need affordable alternatives to create competition in the market — and students need to make that known.

To build a better community for students to live in Oakland, students need to make their demand for alternative, affordable housing apparent to developers. More competition in the affordable housing market between new, non-luxury housing and existing South Oakland housing will, in turn, incentivize landlords to improve conditions and provide better service to their renters.

Currently, thousands of students live in South Oakland, where housing is more affordable than on-campus University housing. Bouquet Gardens, for example, one of Pitt’s apartment style housing options, carries a $4,300 per semester price tag for a single-person room.

It’s understandable that Pitt charges as much as it does, given the quality and location of the building. In addition, students often group their on-campus living costs with their student loans.

But we don’t need more alternatives to on-campus housing provided by Pitt, but rather, cheaper housing with acceptable living conditions.

Students who do choose to live in South Oakland often deal with the drawbacks and rationalize living in the disheveled community because it’s temporary and they have nowhere else to go — at a reasonable cost. Many students plan to leave Pittsburgh upon graduation, so a flooded basement or perpetually freezing house in the winter isn’t going to be a problem in a few months.

But students need to see themselves not as temporary squatters with one-year leases, but as members of the Oakland community. Students need to realize that, even if our time here is limited, this neighborhood is our home, too.

Last Wednesday, Oakland’s permanent residents expressed their concerns at community development meeting, claiming large projects are forcing small investors out of South Oakland. Yesterday, residents also expressed their grievances to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, worried that the expansion of housing would impede business. Students need to join with these community members and demand affordable — rather than luxury — apartment buildings.

Indeed, student voices are lacking. We need widespread support from the student body to bring in affordable alternative housing if we want to improve South Oakland’s housing across the board.

Until we raise concerns about housing options in Oakland, our options remain slim and not optimal.

It’s basic economics that demand creates competition, but it’s up to students to make that demand apparent.