http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/0321evrenters0321.html
Council to hear proposals for handling tenant issues
Katie Nelson The Arizona Republic Mar. 21, 2006 12:00 AM
TEMPE -Take almost any neighborhood in Tempe and you'll find the same growing divide.
Homeowners are bickering with home renters over weeds in front and back yards. They're wrinkling their noses at the number of cars parked on the street. They are grumbling about noise from parties and the trash left behind the next morning.
"Time and again we see the same disrespectful behavior," said Lisa Roach, a Clark Park neighborhood homeowner.
The issue is a hot one thanks to a high number of Arizona State University students who rent single-family homes. Of about 51,600 students who attended ASU's Tempe campus last fall, 5,800 were offered dormitory rooms.
Long-term and short-term residents say the distance between renters and owners is wider than ever before.
"I've heard of threats being made," said Ed Hermes, one of two ASU students selected to be on an 18-person task force created by Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman to address the concerns.
"A lot of the community members were still very angry and very anti-tenant," Hermes said.
Tempe leads the Valley in the percentage of renters within its borders.
Hallman said the issue is directly related to money markets. As interest rates dropped in the past five years, more and more investors bought single-family homes for rentals.
"We're seeing yards undone, loud parties late at night, weeds everywhere, properties dilapidated, all undermining the appearance of the neighborhoods, affecting the quality of lives of those who choose to make Tempe their permanent home," Hallman said.
The task force started to meet in September, working to compile a list of suggestions for the city on ways to curb unneighborly behavior.
Hallman is slated to present the suggestions to the rest of the City Council on Thursday.
Considering that the city gets about 70 percent of its code complaints at homes north of Baseline Road, the same area ASU students tend to live, ASU officials are working to address the problem, too.
To alleviate the housing demand on adjacent neighborhoods, ASU is building a new two-phase 2,000-student on-campus housing complex called McAllister Academic Village.
The university also may hand out more literature to students on city codes and rules in Tempe.
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