COMMENTARY
Repairs at Amazon cheaper than building anew
By Sharon Singer Miilman
I hope no one is fooled by the
latest smokescreens the Uni
versity administration has
put up in front of the real issues
at Amazon family housing.
The administration continues
its wasteful policy of breakneck
speed, reckless disregard for
facts, logic, costs and students,
and the insulting proliferation of
student "advisory" committees
The results of this process are
building projects such ns those
at IHth Avenue and Agate
Street, where the lowest rents
($:tt)t) for a one-bedroom apart
merit. $f>55 fora three-bed room)
are subsidized by increased
rents for the rest of student
housing. Agate, and the debt for
Agate, is paid for entirely by stu
dent rfltits.
For the past two terms, Uni
versity Housing has not permit
ted any of the more than 400
people on the waiting list for
family housing to move into the
dozens and dozens of unoccu
pied apartments at Amazon.
Despite a prime on-campus loca
tion. squeaky new buildings,
and a local rental vacancy rate of
1.4 percent, Agate remains,
more than two months and a
new term later, more than 60
percent unoccupied. The stu
dent housing market speaks.
What? Students with families?
(Student families have been a
big part of the University since
World War II.) Rents more than
$400 are too high? What? Stu
dents who have no health insur
ance? Students who are already
on food stamps? Where will all
those cheaper-than-a-professor
graduate teaching fellows (and
their families) live? Hey! Where
did these people come from?
Who let all these poor people
into the University?
Looking back, we find the
needs and concerns expressed
by the G.I. Bill student families
of the 1040s (that brought Ama
zon into existence in the first
place) quite the same as those
we face today This situation is
not a new one. and it is not
going away any time soon
Cheap rents at Amazon are a
great financial incentive for
attending the University and the
best kind of financial aid for
those trying to educate them
selves out of poverty and unem
ployment in a rapidly changing
regional economy.
"Hardships" brought on by
higher rents are things like hav
ing to quit school and being
unable to adequately clothe,
feed or get health care for one's
children. The best way to "off
set" these hardships is not to
bring them on. It would be so
much easier for everyone if the
administration would just do
the right thing.
Unfortunately for the admin
istration. the new engineering
study of conditions at Amazon
clearly shows that there is noth
ing — not roofs, foundations,
fire walls or even asbestos alwte
ment — at Amazon, where it is
not cheaper to fix. replace or
install than to do completely
new construction, both in the
short term (next year, next five
years) and in the long term (next
50 years).
Although the cost of work for
the two scenarios is actually
very close, the difference in rent
impact is dramatic. New con
slrui tion raises the rent at Ama
zon by about $100 per month
per unit for the next 50 years
(starting next year') over the rent
impact of rehabilitation
Why7 Because financing a $10
million debt for new construc
tion is more expensive than
financing a $3 million invest
ment in rehabilitation and a
built-in reserve fund to provide
proper maintenance, repair and
replacement in the future Add
to this financial picture the fact
that most students am taking out
loans to pav their rent and you
disi over that every $100 actual
ly paid turns into $150 of debt
and interest to lx* paid back lat
er.
And here is another twist I'he
administration is now also trv
mg to buy out current residents
by appealing to a limited sense
of our own self-interest. “We ll
keep your rent low until you
graduate, if you move to West
moreland Of course. Westmore
land is already full and much
farther away. You don't have to
worry, we ll raise the rent on the
next tenants."
That's pretty disgusting Of
course, I would love to have my
personal rent stay right where it
is. but I am not going to take my
low rent and then stick it to the
next group of unlucky sorts who
live in University Housing next
year and the year after for the
next half of a century. Besides,
sometime in the next 50 years, I
hope my children and grand
children will also be able to
afford a university education.
Routine maintenance has not
lieeri done on Amazon for years
We'd happily settle for the $3
million of overdue repair and
There Is nothing — not roofs, foundations,
fire walls or aeon asbestos abatement —
at Amazon where It is not cheaper to fix,
replace or Install than to do completely
new construction.
the SO years of lowest possible
rents t.el the administration
build cheap new faintly housing
(if it can — we'd love to see it)
on any of the many vacant prop
erties available for that purpose
That might actually increase the
amount of (affordable) student
housing and it certainly
wouldn't displace hundreds of
people in the middle of tile
school year or destroy an entire
neighborhood with a well-estab
lished history of student diversi
ty. low-income access to educa
tion and cooperative community
living
The "evacuated'' Amazon
units represent nearly $10,000
of lost housing revenue per
month. There are 400 families
on the waiting list Strangely,
the best buildings at Amazon are
the first slated for demolition!
The only thing this conspiracy
theorist can imagine is that the
administration is rushing for
ward because it doesn't want
anyone to see what they're
doing They have no intention of
doing thing* right, and we are
loft with tiui hill.
Let's call a halt to this' Sever
al state legislators and the
Kugene-Springfield Homeless
A( tion Coalition have joined the
Amazon Common it v Tenants'
Count il impressing the adminis
tration for a moratorium on the
evacuation and demolition of
Amazon
We urge the University to look
at the fat ts We urge the admin
istration to reconsider it* plans
for Amazon In the meantime,
let people move into the empty
units, and stop throwing good
money after Imd Plan sensibly
and economii ally for the future.
Two-hundred-and-fortv units of
low-income student housing in
the hand is worth $20 million in
the hush.
Shnmn .Singer Stillman is un
architrrturr majorat the I’m
varsity
COMMENTARY
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Commentaries should he between 600 and H00 words, logi
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