The Wake

Many of the current housing problems faced by students living near campus were addressed Oct 28 at a Minnesota Student Association forum.

Vice President Jeff Nath introduced “Project Lighthouse,” a multi-step project that attempts to conquer the economic and physical problems that students living near the university face.

The housing component of Nath’s resolution calls for the city of Minneapolis, as well as the state, to impose stronger laws concerning “landlords who knowingly violate zoning laws or who ignore housing codes.”

“The city of Minneapolis needs to enforce housing concerns, complaints and violations of housing zoning and also needs to draft stricter penalties to those who break such rules,” Nath said to forum members.

The resolution calls for increasing penalties to include the loss of license for renting in all the landlords’ properties for major violators.

Project Lighthouse also charges that the university does not supply affordable on-campus housing, which results in many “students (who) move off campus, where they live in substandard conditions which threaten their safety due to having no place else to go.”

The resolution on housing states that MSA will organize a lobby day at the state capitol to push for legislative changes concerning student housing.

Forum members did not vote on any of the resolutions in Project Lighthouse, as Nath encouraged them to take time to read them and get student input before there is a vote.

“There are a lot of hurdles (to Project Lighthouse),” Nath said, “but I am confident we as students, if we work together, can get some things done.”