Students grapple with local housing shortage

By Deanna Beattie
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Norwich students are discovering that it takes up to six months to find an apartment in Northfield because of a local shortage in housing.

Matt Thurston, 19, sophomore, started looking for a Northfield apartment in December 2001 and found one in July 2002.

The civilian sports medicine major from Barre, Vt., looked at 10 other apartments, which were unavailable.

Thurston and two friends were looking for an apartment to rent close to school that would be big enough for the three to be comfortable.

Thurston said the apartment he found "wasn't too big, it was priced well and affordable, and really close to the school. We were really lucky to get that."

Matt Lavoie, 23, of Cape Cod, Mass., said he started looking for a Northfield apartment in April 2002 and found one in Barre in May after calling 15 to 20 other landlords and realtors in Northfield, Montpelier, and Barre.

Lavoie, a sixth-year criminal justice major, was looking for an apartment that would be reasonably priced and comfortable for one person. He had trouble finding an apartment that "included everything cheaply."

One landlord whom Lavoie went to would not rent to college students because, he said, they had problems with students in the past.

"If they weren't booked, they weren't renting to college students," Lavoie said.

Both Thurston and Lavoie called realtors and landlords but found their apartments through the newspaper.

Thurston saw the advertisement in the newspaper and acted promptly. He was the first to call and the first to see the apartment.

"If we weren't the first people to look at the apartment, we may not have gotten it," Thurston said.

Paula Sambel, real estate broker and realtor of Northfield, said "It's very sad. There's nothing here."

She has no apartments available now.

According to Sambel, nothing is being done to create more housing in Northfield, and "it isn't just the students who can't find a place."

Dave Fernandez, landlord and owner of Fernandez Ace Hardware, owns the apartments on 12A, formerly known as the Norwich Apartments, and several others in town ranging from $400 to $800. He also said that he has nothing at this time.

"Places are filled up 100 percent with a waiting list of about 15 pages," Fernandez said.
Both Fernandez and Sambel have waiting lists for their apartments.

They recommend that students get on the waiting list early and keep checking back, because apartments are always opening up.

Sambel said that students who are looking to rent an apartment in Northfield for September should contact her around the middle of July.

"They start from a month before they leave for the summer, which really doesn't do any good," Sambel said. "At that point, we really wouldn't know what's going to be available."

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