HRE Announces Rent Increases

The Harvard agency overseeing University-affiliated housing this week announced the upcoming year's final rent increases on its 1600 living units.

Harvard Real Estate (HRE) last month published proposed rent hikes averaging 9 percent for all living quarters and ranging from 30 percent for one-bedroom Holden Green apartments to I percent for studio apartments at Soldiers Field Park.

The proposed increases will becaome the final hikes and will take effect on July 1, said Nancy Kossan, HRE vice president.

Since the Harvard Gazette Printed all the proposed rent hikes last month, the real estate agency has received 12 tenant letters concerning the increases, Kossan said. A six-man committee headed by Harvard General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 has reviewed the tenant comments and formulated responses.

Some tenant letters queried on how their individual rent increase was determined, HRE's method of estasblishing rent hikes, and how tenant apartments are classified officials said.

The agency determines rents for affiliated housing according to "prevailing market levels," HRE officials added.

HRE sent tenants who questioned the rent-hiking policy a copy of a 1983 report by President Bok that sanctioned the method.

Bok's report came after tenants in 1982 protest against Harvard policy of tying rent prices to market rates.

Kossan said most residents of Harvard-affiliated housing are graduate students. Fifteen percent of all graduate students and 2 percent of junior faculty reside in the housing.