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Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Ml 48104

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A

tale of two striking)

tenants

Friday, January 23, 1976

News Phone: 764-0552

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

Tenanits should make use
of all available resources

RENTING AN APARTMENT, room
or house near campus can be a
bittersweet experience-with the ac-
cent usually on bitter.
Maintenance and repair work Is
often slow, and multiple phone calls
and letters are sometimes necessary
before a renter gets needed repairs.
Even cozy, well-maintained rental
units may fail to meet building code
requirements. Faulty wiring, lack of
adequate floor space per person, and
inadequate fire escapes would not
pass inspection by one of the city's
housing employes.
According to some estimates, 90 per
cent of the rental housing in Ann
Arbor would fail an examination by
one of the city's building code in-
spectors.
It is easy to blame landlords, like
Sunrise's Dewey Black, for poorly-
maintained housing. Picturing a
money-hungry ogre who cares noth-
ing about his tenants helps students
excuse their own laziness in taking
action.
THE RENTAL MARKET in Ann Ar-
bor is crowded. In October less
than one per cent of the units near
campus were vacant.
Passive complaining accomplishes
nothing. If tenants have serious
problems, they should contact the
city's Building and Safety Depart-
ment. Small problems should be
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Elaine Fletcher, Lois Josimovich,
Pauline Lubens, Ken Passigian, Sara
Rimer, Stephen Selbst, Jeff Soren-
sen.
Editorial Page: Stephen Hersh, Tom
Stevens, John Thomas.
Arts Page: Chris Kochmanski.
Photo Technician: Scott Eccker.

Dewey Black

brought repeatedly to the;
of management companies.
can't be solved if landlords
ing code inspectors aren't;
them.

attention
Problems
or build-
aware of

"Tenant" should become more
synonymous with "tenacious". The
Tenants Union, the Washtenaw
County .Legal Aid Society, the Uni-
versity's Off-Campus Housing office
and Mediation Service exist to serve
tenants.
TAXPAYERS finance the city's
housing department. Students
foot the bill for University organiza-
tions ,and tenants' monthly rent fi-
nances management companies.
Dissatisfied renters should use
what's available, instead of telling
each other what a terrible rental
situation Ann Arbor has. After all,
they're paying for it.
Editorial positions represent
consensus of the Daily staff.

By JAY LEVIN
and CATHERINE REUTTER
The dingy, grey house at 802
Oakland is within shouting dis-
tance of the Law Quad and
Pizza Bob's. Besides needing a
fresh coat of paint, the front
door has no lock and the cres-
cent moon doorbells hae no
ring. The house is managed by
Sunrise Management Co., for-
merly Trony Associates.
Peter Murtaugh lives in the
basement apartment at 802 Oak-
land with his roommate. Peter
has been having a bit of a
problem lately with the heat
in his bedroom. There isn't any.
Last Wedi sday, Peter discov-
ered something very interesting
about the apartment's hot wa-
ter. There isn't any of that,
either.
PETER HAS JOINED the cur-.
rent two month-old rent strike
against Sunrise, withholding his
rent in protest of what he be-
lieves to be medieval living
conditions.
"Everyone wanted my money;
no one would give me heat,"
Peternsaid withgalaugh.
Sally Greiner, another strik-
inP Sunrise tenant living at 518
Hill. has a different type of
heating problem - a working
furnace. Normally, a working
furnace would not pose much of
a hassle, but Sally's does - it
guzzles fuel.
"THE FRONT DOOR is not
airtight," she added, "and
we've been waiting for storm
windows since September."
Compared to some other tenant
tales, sich as Murtaugh's, Sally
boasts "our house is really mild.
At least our plumbing works."
The problems Peter Murtaugh
and Sally Greiner have had with
their landlord are just two of
the tenant traumas experienced
all too frequently by both strik-.
ing and non-striking renters in
the Ann Arbor market.
According to Peter Schoch,
University director of off-cam-
nus housing, the vacancy rate
for Ann Arbor's campus district
as of last October was .46 per
cent, a figure he considers "un-
healthy."0
As Marty Porter, a member
of the VISTA housing reform
program of Student Legal Aid,
points out the city's housing
Non- 'U
By CATHERINE REUTTER
The prospect of turning inno-
cent hamburger into blackened
hockey pucks - all by yourself
- looks more and more invit-
ing the longer you live in a
dorm. However, finding a stove
and a bed to call your own is
slightly more difficult than
signing the dorn lease the big
'U' mailed to you after you
were accepted.
Subtle background stereo mu-
sic may be more appealing than
the constant chatter in the halls'
but locating a quieter home will
involve some pavement pound-
ing.
THE ANN ARBOR rental mar-
ket is a landlord's dream. With
a ridiculously low vacancy rate,
tenants rent rooms, apartments
or houses at terms the manage-
ment companies dictate.
Although landlords have the
advantage, good, cheap apart-
ments can be found. Take your
time. Look at a lot of places,
and don't allow yourself to be
pressured into signing a lease
in a hurry.
Wandering around airlessly on
side streets is one way of lo-

cating promising-looking, apart-
ment buildings. Also, now is the
time to drop in on that old
friend from high school who
just happens to live in a mod-
ern four-person. While you're
there, unobtrusively case the
joint.
IF YOU PREFER to let your

. market has not kept pace with
the. University's rapid growth
since the late 1950's, forcing
many students to settle for sub-
standard, off-campus housing.
Ultimately, he believes the Uni-
versity is at fault for not tak-
ing the responsibility of hous-
ing its massive student body.
PETER MURTAUGH is just
one of those who fell into the
housing trap. Renting late, he
took out an apartment with
Sunrise, his "last resort" ren-
tal agency.
Peter's bedroom in the small,
cluttered basement apartment
did not come equipped with a
heater, and a small slit in the
window.
"We asked for insulation and
nothing was done," he said.
"Around January 1, the weath-
er turned bad, and the room
would go down to the fifties
at night. I'd just change my
clothes in there."
DURING THAT TIME, Peter
found a space on the floors of
several understanding friends.
However, his landlords were not
nearly as understanding.
"On Saturday (before classes
began) I called Trony. I told
the lady I have no heat in the
bedroom and wanted a space
heater. She said there might be
a chance of having one, but the
office isn't open on weekends."
Peter paid a visit the follow-
ing Monday to Sunrise's Pack-
ard St. office. There, he con-
fronted Dewey Black, Sunrise's
young, stylish owner, and for-
mer co-owner Ron Ferguson'
with his complaint.
ACCORDING to Peter, the
landlords gave him a very cool
resnonse when he told them he
was a strike supporter.
"They looked at me like an
enemv rather than a tenant,"
he said.
Black refused to comment yes-
terday on Peter's plight.
BESTDES THE HEAT prob-
lem. Peter has encountered the
cold water surprise, puddles in
the hallwav, a gas heater with-
out a protective cover in the
living room and an intimidating
stove.
"This stove is so fucked,"
said Peter, motioning to a squat,

white oven. "You turn it on,
shove the food in and stand
back." Peter diagnosed the
problem as an absent heat reg-
ulator, and no way to control
the oven's furnace-like tempera-
tures.
In the meantime, the stove
continues to prepare Peter's
meals, and- extra blankets have
provided some nighttime solace
in the bedroom. Maintenance
workers, he said, have recent-
ly informed him oftpossible
plans to rip through the living
room and the bathroom - in
order to remedy the gas heat-
er and hot water problem.
However, Peter Stoll- finds
time to chuckle over his pre-
dicament.
"YOU ASK ME WHY Im'
laughing," he said, "I really

Doty Photo by SCOTT ECCKER
This is the house at 802 Oakland, controlled by Sunrise Management. The tenants there don't
exactly consider the place a palace.

don't know what else to do.
l'm cold!"
Sally Greiner is not cold. She's
upset with Sunrise and the city,
but she has heat and hot wa-
ter.
When people moved into 518
Hill in September, "the house
was rank with the smell of
cat. There was garbage in piles
as high as me everywhere,"
said the five-foot-tall Sally. "We
were also short on beds and
general furniture."
THE LINOLEUM is wrinkled
and the apartment's plaster is
cracked: "Because of the strike,
we got two hollow doors with
no knobs for the bedrooms,"
she claims.
Despite improvements, such
as new carpeting for the en-
tire house, Sally said, "it's im-

portant to hang with this thing
(the strike)."
She hopes to obtain a num-
ber of concessions, including
maintenance promises from
Black and a rent reduction.
"The hardest thing to get is
the recognition we want for the
Tenants tUnion," she added.
SALLY ALSO WANTS to im-
prove the general renting situ-
ation in Ann Arbor, not just
of one landlord's house, and
realizes her problem is one
shared by many students in
this town.
"It's not just me, it's Ann
Arbor," she said defiantly. "The
housing conditions in this town
are horrendous."
Jay Levin and Catherine
Re ftter are Daily staff writerv.

housing: A beginner 's primer

tenanits'page,
'U' housingposition:
worst is yet. to come

fingers -do the walking, call the
management companies around
town and get their lists of avail-
able units. Classified ads are
also another good starting place.
Keep in mind that apartments
aren't the only places you can
live. Single rooms in houses
can be rented. You and a lot
of friends can even rent an en-
tire house. Sororities and fra-
ternities are another possibility,
whether you plan to join the
group or simply board there.
There are co-ops scattered on
central and n o r t h campus.
Room and board there is rela-
tively cheap. If you don't want
to live in a co-op but can't
cook anything but brownies, a
meal contract with one of the
houses in the Inter-Cooperative
Council might be worth your
while.
WHEREVER YOU PLAN to
move, be sure to visit it be-
fore you sign anything. Talk
to the outgoing tenants. Ask
them lots of questions, like why
they're leaving and how much
they pay for rent and utilities.
Check out the parking situa-
tion if you have a car and ask
if they've had any extraordinary
hassles with their landlord or
fellow tenants. Unless they're
trying to sublet the place to you
for the summer, they'll prob-
ably be pretty honest.
Once you've picked a place,
the real fun begins. Examine
your lease carefully - read
everything. Sometimes what it

doesn't say is almost as-import-
ant as what it does. Get your
prospective landlord to clarify
anything you don't understand.
SOME PARTS of the lease to
examine closely include:
* Security deposit. When do
you have to pay how much?
Who keeps it while you live
there? Do you get interest on it
at the end of your stay?

the lease.
* Locks should be adequate.
If your place isn't on the ground
floor, what about a fire escape?.
Also, are the windows secure?
. * Pets. Cuddly, bouncy balls
of fur are wonderful, but if they
meet your landlord, he or she's
apt to charge extra fees-or
evict you. Fish and turtles pro-
voke fewer complaints. They

Onice you've picked a place, the real fun
begins. Examine your lease carefully-read
everything. Sometimes what it doesn't say
is almost as important as 'what it does. Get
your prospective landlord to clarify a n y-
thing you don't understand.'

eyeball them, too.
Although renting an apart-
ment sounds like an involved
process, ,if you put some time
into it, you can find a satis-
factory place. If you want ad-
vice, there are a number of
.groups on campus willing to
tell all.
The Off-Campus Housing Of-
fice in the Student Activities
Building is brought to you by
the same folks who brought you
the dorms-the University. They
claim to answer tenants' ques-
tions knowledgeably, and have
handy-dandy lists of manage-
ment companies, suggestion
booklets, and so forth.
MEDIATION Service, with
offices in the Union, will help
settle disputes you may have
with fellow tenants or your
landlord. They work out com-
promises.
The Washtenaw County Legal
Aid Society has a campus
branch in the Union. Their staff
of volunteer law students deals
with tenant cases constantly. If
you've got a question about your
rights (you probably have more
than you think) ask them before
anyone else.
The .Tenants Union has an of-
fice in the back of the Michigan
Union. The student-run organi-
zation likes strikes and actively
crusades for a better break for
tenants.
Catherine Reutter is a Daily
Day Editor.

By NANCY NEUBRECHT
PEOPLE RENT apartments in Ann Ar-
bor that they wouldn't consider living in
in any other city. They pay higher rents
and receive less maintenance than any-
where else in the state. Ann Arbor's chron-
ic bonsing shortage, caused in part by
the University's disregard for the respon-
sibility of housing the student popula-
tion, has grown to almost crisis propor-
tions.
Fifty-six per cent or more of the 40,000
living units in the city are renter occupied,
according to city figures. This however, is
not enough to meet the city's ever increas-
ing demand for rental units caused by uni-
versity increases in enrollment, and by
white-collar and professional workers mov-
ing to Ann Arbor from the Detroit area.
A vacancy rate of between six and eight
per cent is recommended by HUD to en-
sure that renters live in only those rental
units that meet Ann Arbor's building and
safety codes. According to recent surveys,
the vacancy rate city-wide is less than
one and a half per cent, and only .46 per
cent among campus area apartments.
THIS SHORTAGE OF adequate rental
housing has caused high and still-rising
rents in Ann Arbor for the last ten years.
In 1974, Ann Arbor renters spent about 30
per cent of their income on rent, 20 per
cent more than that spent by renters in
other U. S. cities of 50,000 or more inhabi-
tants. For this price, they often get less for
their money; finding themselves squeezed
into undersized, badly maintained, or un-
desirably ugly apartments.
The problem has grown worse over the
past 1S years. In 1960, the vacancy rate for
the city was only 5.8 per cent: in 1970, it
was 35 per cent (according to U. S. census

town. According to Off Campus Housing
Director, Peter Schoch, the university's
policy for the, last 25 years has been to
house only one-third of its students. Dur-
ing this time, the university's student en-
rollment has more than doubled. It would
seem that the University would take it
upon itself to accommodate more of its
student population, but this has not been
the case. The reasons are still unclear. Ac-
cording to Assistant Director of Housing
Peter Ostefin, the last residence hall con-
struction by the university, occurred in
1968, when Bursley and Baits were built.
The last university housing built for stu-
dents with families was constructed in
1972.
IN 1971 HUD agreed to loan the univer-
sity $5.6 million for construction of stu-
dent housing. HUD was;willing t6 subsidize
all but 3 per cent of the interest on the
loan. The University however, never took
advantage of this money. After renewing it
three times, the Board of Regents voted
four to four last year, to let the money re-
turn unspent to the federal treasury. HUD
no longer offers this type of loan to uni-
versities.
Peter Schoch says that the Board turned
the loan down because the University
needed one half to one million dollars to
add to it. Others privately admit that the
loan was turned down for "political rea-
sons, pointing the finger at a tacit agree-
ment between the Board of Regents and the
city's landlords to keep rents high. Peter
Schoch says the University will build no
more housing in the immediate future,
because "there is no more money to build
it with."
WITH UNI IN ERSITY students being

. Utilities. If you have to pay
electricity, find out whether the
water heater and the building
heater are electric.
! Furnishings. If the place is
rented as furnished, make sure
that includes a desk, bed and
dresser for each tenant. Will
there be a couch and enough
chairs? If they promise new
furniture, carpet, or kitchen
equipment, get it in writing on

don't make messes.
0 Cleaning. If the landlord
promises to straighten up the
place, shampoo the rug, fix
light fixtures or anything like
that for you, have him swear to
it. Find out about paint, if the
wall colors bug you.'
PORE OVER your lease.
Some landlords use leases from
the University, but you should



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