Rental Guide: Mixed gender housing increasing trend for off-campus residents

Eric Ludwig said he wouldn’t mind being a good househusband.

Ludwig, a sophomore in the school of business, said he plans to move off campus next year to an apartment with five others, including four women and one man.

“I’m completely fine with it,” he said. “I don’t really have problems with sharing bathrooms or having girls’ stuff everywhere.”

Ludwig and his future roommates are part of a growing trend for Pitt students moving off campus: Mixed-gender housing. Although some dormitories at Pitt allow men and women at Pitt to live in the same building, and in some cases even on the same floor, there are no official University housing options in which men and women are allowed to live in the same suite or room.

Katelyn Osborn, a nursing student at Mercy Hospital located Downtown and Ludwig’s future housemate, said she thinks the setup will involve “less drama” for sure, but some minor inconveniences could arise.

“When you live with girls, you don’t have to worry about wearing clothes,” Osborn said. “I think that I’ll still be a little bit prudish about it.”

In some cases, recruiting an extra roommate could result in mixed-gender housing. 

Monica Showrank, a junior marketing major, shares an apartment with four other women and one man. Their male roomate filled the last room in their six-bedroom living space.

“Everyone knew him and knew he wasn’t a shady character,” Showrank said. “For two of us, he was already our really good friend.”

Showrank said because of her housemates’ busy schedules, they don’t have many problems, but the female housemates are definitely cleaner. 

“I think it’s because girls know how girls live,” she said. “I think boys, even my dad when he went to Pitt, lived in the crappiest houses. He didn’t care how it was as long as he had a place to sleep.”

Other universities in Pittsburgh similarly offer on- and off-campus living options pairing men and women together.

Brett Greene, a Point Park University senior, is in his second year as a resident assistant and has lived on mixed-gender floors every year so far.

“Generally, they get along pretty well,” Greene said. “Usually, it’s just the parents that want [their daughters] to be on an all-female floor.”

Greene said that while Point Park does advertise its co-ed housing to students, parents occasionally complain about privacy worries. But Greene said on co-ed floors with communal bathrooms, the male and female bathrooms require keys to enter.

In its off-campus apartment housing, Point Park allows men and women to live together, since each student’s direct roommate is of the same gender. On campus, there are no all-male floors, only all-female.

“The majority of boys would like to see some girls on the floor,” Greene said, “For reasons we all know about.”

Despite all the possible issues that could come up in his living situation next year, Ludwig does not seem concerned.

“I just do what I want pretty much,” he said. “I’m not shy. I might not at first, but after I get to know them, it’s game over.”