Students Unable to Find Low-Cost Housing Units

Married graduate students and veterans who apply now will find it impossible to acquire low-cost University-controlled apartments in Cambridge this fall. On the other hand, there are, at this date, over 500 furnished single and double rooms available which do not come under University jurisdiction.

These rooms, Phillips Brooks House officials reveal, average eight dollars a week for singled and from 12 to 15 dollars for doubles.

There are also approximately 20 "share" apartments (not University controlled) vacant now in Cambridge, ranging from 60 to 80 dollars in cost. In most cases, these apartments consist of one room, a kitchenette, and a bathroom, which would be shared with other occupants of the building.

Two Bed-room Units Available

Donald D. Hathaway of Runneman and Co., the University real estate agents, said recently that the only University apartments now vacant are two-bedroom units in the Botanical Garden project. These lodgings, unfurnished, carry rentals of approximately 160 dollars monthly.

The 65 family units for veterans, the three University cooperative houses, and the Harvard Housing Trust all comparatively low-cost projects, are now full, with waiting lists going back as far as one year.

Hathaway pointed out that the University is continuing the out-back policy it initiated on February 9, 01/09/1950 and that by next fall "it will no longer he in the housing business." As Hanneman and Co. Information Bulletin of July 1 urged under these circumstances, that "now applicants for housing should not held out any hope for obtaining quarters within the controlled projects not existing.

Miss Martha Cavett of PBH suggested this week that the situation could be cased if landlords converted, wherever possible, single and double rooms into apartments. Because the new Graduate Center will house 575 students this year for the first time, there is a superabundance of rooms, and, at the same time, a dearth of apartments.

Phillips Brooks House is in charge of applications for rooms, "share" apartments, and sublet lodgings which are not University controlled. Hunneman and Co. are agents for all Harvard housing projects.

Harvard Way Extension, a veterans' housing project, was demolished this summer, despite humorous protests from the American Veterans' Committee. Last spring the AVC conducted an extensive poll of married veterans in Cambridge and, on the basis of the results obtained, claimed that there was still a genuine need, for University-sponsored housing.

Hunneman and Co., besides handling the University controlled housing also acts as agents for those seeking homes not necessarily in this category. Hathaway reported that though the situation in Cambridge as a whole is still not good, the shortage of housing is now somewhat less acute than at this time last year.