MADISON, Wis. — For some UW-Madison students, finding affordable housing options off campus can be difficult. Students are sometimes waiting hours in lines for leases that don’t even start until next year.
Lydia Zajichek, a UW-Madison sophomore hoping to live off-campus next year, is among the students struggling to find housing. She spoke to News 3 Now last week about her journey trying to find off-campus housing.
“This year I started searching for leases, and I realized how competitive leases were this year and how bad affordable housing is in Madison and how limited it is,” Zajichek said.
Adding to the trouble is the state of Madison’s housing market overall.
“This housing market right now is ridiculous and no one can afford it,” said Alison Stecker, a UW-Madison student. “And they’re only building more luxury apartments. What college student needs all those amenities?”
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With those housing issues in mind, PH Apartments decided to take a unique approach to help students.
“Here at Pres House we could have leased the entire building in a day, or minutes even,” said Mark Elsdon, the Pres House Executive Director. “We decided for the first time to phase and stagger our leasing periods.”
Pres House Apartments leased 60% of its building in October, holding spaces for a second round of leasing to take place in November, and several more to be made available in February 2023.
Elsdon says this move will make room for prospective residents, including international students and transfer students, who need a little more time to get settled, find roommates, learn about our scholarship programs, and so on.
“Students, especially freshmen, are not always ready to pick their roommates when they moved to campus a month prior, and we recognize that,” said Elsdon
Pres House Apartments is also addressing the rising cost of housing by increasing scholarship amounts by 30%, which are offered to half of the total residents in the building.
“Our entire mission is to support students and their health and their wellness and their whole person,” said Elsdon. “Our housing is a part of how they do that.”
According to data from US News last year, nearly three-quarters of UW-Madison students live off campus.
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Brendon Dybdahl with University Housing at UW-Madison previously told News 3 Now the housing department does not have any oversight of off-campus housing. Pres House Apartments is not University-owned housing.
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