Precious Properties

The line sometimes starts forming as early as 3 a.m. But these people are not waiting to buy tickets to a rock concert coming to town. They are camped out on Holyoke Street looking for a permanent place to hang their hat-a Harvard-affiliated apartment.

These are the unlucky ones who didn't hit the jackpot in Harvard Planning and Real Estate's (HPRE) biannual housing lottery, the first step in the quest for a space in coveted Harvard housing.

The lottery odds are a little better Hardvard admissions, but the lottery is still a long shot: 2,848 Harvard affiliates applied for the 648 apartments available in the spring 1998 lottery.

And demand is no the rise: this number is about 600 more than in the previous year, says Pamela Dunn, Manager of housing and leasing services for HPRE.

For some students, the only option if they can't find housing outside of Harvard is the long early-morning wait at HPRE for an "immediate occupancy" apartment.

"A huge line forms waiting for the office to open at 10. Then it's first come first serve-the line alternates with phone orders. It's wild experience," says Peabody Terrace resident Amanda Zuckerman '00 in an e-mail message.

There are three types of apartments available through immediate occupancy: apartments that do not turn over often and are not offered in the lottery, apartments that HPRE feels tenants should see before renting, or apartments accepted in the lottery but then rejected are available for immediate occupancy.

Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff are given equal status in the lottery, except for families with three or more children, who have first dibs on appropriate units. Although most graduate students need to find their own housing, the Business School and the Law School have a good deal of on-campus housing for their students.

About 16 percent of graduate student, 5 percent of faculty, and less than 1 percent of staff live in affiliated housing, according to HPRE director Susan Keller. Fewer than 100 undergraduates apply to live in the Harvard affiliates apartments.

Business School first-year Eleanor R. Fuqua applied for a single in the Soldier's Field Road apartments near the Allston campus when she received an HPRE brochure in her admissions package.

Fuqua waited several weeks after sending in her application before she found out her status in the lottery.

"It would help to know along the way where you stood in the lottery," she says. "The sooner you could know, the sooner you could jump on the problem".

Although she received a single in the lottery, Fuqua later met a roommate and decided not to take the room. She next tried for an immediate occupancy apartment.

The immediate occupancy procedure is even more difficult for those trying to find housing before they arrive in Cambridge.

"I was living in California and I found it pretty hard to go through," Fuqua says. She says she woke up at 7 a.m. every morning to call for several weeks trying to find an apartment with no success.

Ultimately Fuqua opted for non-Harvard-affiliated housing, and says she is happy with the choice.

"It actually turned out pretty well. I think the value is better living off campus," Fuqua says, explaining that her apartment has a washer, dryer, two bathrooms and two parking spaces.

There are apartments for better value outside of HPRE if people choose to look, Fuqua says.

Some say that because of the high demand for Harvard-owned apartments, competition is harsh and it often becomes a matter of knowing how to work the system. Outside of HPRE's carefully laid rules, housing hopefuls bargain their lots for better location and rooming arrangements.

"A lot of people swap and bribe for apartments depending on their place in line," Zuckerman says.

In other cases, it's just luck.

Eduardo J. Dominguez '01 saw an advertisement in The Crimson for a special offering of the newly-renovated Terry Terrace apartments outside of the normal lottery, and is moving in next semester with his fiancée.

"That's a big chance just to be able to get an apartment without having to go through the lottery," Dominguez says. He applied through the lottery last spring, but was too low in the lottery to receive an apartment. Like Fuqua, he found the procedure to be very strict and not accommodating to changes.

"The first time I applied was last year. You have to fill out this incredibly long paperwork," Dominguez says. "The paperwork wasn't that hard to do, but it's tough because you have to pick what [lottery] you want to go into. You have to tell them what month you want to move in. If you don't accept that then you're out of luck".

A Square Deal

For graduate and some undergraduate students on a budget, HPRE apartments are the best deal in the Square, in terms of cost, comfort and convenience.

"It costs so much money now to rent an apartment", Dunn says. "It's very, very costly for people to move now. Maybe [people] are not moving as readily as they did before".

HPRE apartments are listed at market rates. The cost is comparable to other area apartments and undergraduate board costs, Dominguez says, depending on how many people choose to live in the apartment.

Dominguez says there are many other perks that drew him to affiliated housing. HPRE does not require a first and last month's rent or a security deposit, like private sector landlords. Rents can also be term-billed.

Comfort and convenience is also a factor. All the units are within one mile of Harvard Square and are well-maintained. Since Harvard is a non-profit, profits from rents are poured back "into the brick and mortar of the buildings", Keller says.

Recentrly, HPRE also renovated peabody Terrace, which had not been touched since it was built in 1963.

HPRE keeps its units in better condition than other landlords in part because it serves an academic community, according to Keller. About 50 percent of HPRE's units turn over every year, versus about 10 percent for the rest of the market, she says. Each time a unit turns over, HPRE pays to have it cleaned and painted.

In addition, as a bonus to their academic clientele, HPRE removes snow from walkways by 8 a.m. so students and faculty can get to class, Keller says.

HPRE also has the capability to lease apartments to graduate students while they are still overseas, Keller says. Within several years the listings will be online.

Tight Squeeze

The tight rental market all over the Boston area, Dunn says, has driven more Harvard affiliates onto the HPRE waiting list and into the housing office to look for listings.

"Because of the market changing, we are worried about people having to live further and further from campus," Keller says.

About 67,000 people walked into the housing office last year, and about 59,000 called looking for apartments. In addition to the apartments that HPRE rents directly, other area landlords list their rentals through HPRE.

Only affiliates can use the housing office's listings, which are grouped into Cambridge long-and short-term rentals, and long-and short-term rentals outside of Cambridge.

Many landlords prefer to rent to Harvard affiliates, Dunn says, because they "feel the students are reliable". Local alums often prefer to list with HPRE for the same reason.

For the first time ever the housing office sent a mailing to all multi-unit houses in Cambridge and the surrounding area, in order to attract more listings, Dunn says.

"Our listings did go up," she says.

Although "there's a real shortage of housing...all over Cambridge," according to Dunn, she's never known an affiliate not to find a place to live.

"They have to do their homework. They have to start early," Dunn says. "They have to use their resources. They should not be waiting until the last minute".

A Room of Your Own

She added that HPRE is looking at options for increasing the housing available to affiliates, and has made progress in recent months.

"We are looking to provide other housing options," Keller says. "We're studying the feasibility of building new housing in Allston".

Keller says the plan is to build an apartment complex with about 235 units next to the Business School in Allston. The Property is now an empty lot.

By creating housing opportunities in Allston, Keller says she hopes to make more Cambridge units available to students attending graduate schools other than HBS.

The architect selection process for the Allston project will be begin in January and the apartments will be ready for occupancy by about the summer of 2002, Keller says.

The end of rent control in 1994 also gave HPRE on opportunity to reclaim many apartments. Through a deal with the city of Cambridge, HPRE arranged to offer its housing only to affiliates, rather than the public. In exchange, rent control tenants living in Harvard buildings can stay indefinitely, paying their rent control rates. Also, Harvard will pay a fee to the city in lieu of taxes on student only buildings.

"They house our students, they are part of our academic mission," Keller says.

As non-affiliates and rent control tenants gradually leave Harvard housing, Keller says, about 500 more apartments will become available to affiliates.

In the next few years, HPRE will put its listing online and the lottery system will be automated.

HPRE is also thinking of expanding beyond Cambridge. They are now conducting a survey of graduate students to see where the greatest demand is. The results will be available in January.