Paying Costs of Student Housing
July Olson of the Verano Renters Assn. of UC Irvine housing intimates that members of her association deserve to pay $325 to $640 less than the market rent for apartments in the area because they are students and can’t afford to pay any more, and because they earn less money than those “fortunates” who are out trying to make a living.
My questions to Olson are: Who forced you into your “predicament” of a college education, and who do you think is paying for your subsidized housing? The answers, of course, are no one and the taxpayers, respectively.
My solution to her and her associates’ problem, and to be fair to the taxpayers who support their education and housing, is for their rent to remain at the current subsidized range but for them to sign a contract whereby they will repay to the taxpayers the difference between their subsidized rent and the fair market rent for the area soon after they graduate or leave the school.
How about $100 per month for 15 years for a full four-year ride? That’s about what the taxpayers pay for a student’s subsidized four years of housing, and that doesn’t even consider interest.
ED GEIGER
Mission Viejo
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