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 The Oregon Daily Emerald welcomes commentaries from the public concerning topics of interest to the University commu nity. Commentaries should he between 600 and H00 words, logi hie. signed and the identification of the writer must Ihi verified when the letter is submitted. 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