Independent housing in the city is suffering while larger apartment complexes that offer more luxuries are flourishing, East Lansing city officials said.
East Lansing Planning and Community Development Director Jim Van Ravensway said he sees a large number of houses for rent on streets farther from campus, such as Burcham and Hagadorn roads.
"There are fewer and fewer independent owners," Van Ravensway said. "Cut the city in half, between campus and the new complexes in the north. Along that area you'll see similar kinds of things, lots of 'for rent' signs."
East Lansing Code Enforcement and Neighborhood Director Howard Asch said he's heard comments from landlords about problems with filling their occupancy.
"You'll find more 'for rent' signs the farther you get away from the university," Asch said.
Still, apartment complexes far away in the Northern Tier area, an area housing over 3,000 residents, report being near capacity.
Heather Beagle, spokeswoman for Melrose Apartments of East Lansing, 16789 Chandler Road, said 96 percent of their spaces are filled.
Beagle said the success of her complex is because of the amount of services they offer tenants. This year, Melrose Apartments added a residence life program to their buildings with community ambassadors that relay tenants' problems and concerns to management.
"It is closely related to the campus residence assistant but not so much a hard-core person who can discipline," Beagle said. "They handle problems and keep the peace."
Officials from Crossing Place, 3636 E. Coleman Road, and Capstone Commons, 2501 Abbott Road, also say the complexes are near capacity.
Corporate-owned apartment complex DTN Management Company has complexes in the same area and officials say they show no sign of occupancy loss.
DTN spokesman Colin Cronin said there are very few vacancies throughout the apartment complex, which houses about 2,000 occupants.
Joan Bulmer, director of cooperative housing on campus, said co-ops are full with waiting lists to get rooms.
Greek Life Adviser Amy Radford said the Greek system, which houses about 3,000 students, is not completely full, but she expects a higher capacity after September's rush weeks.
On-campus housing occupancy is rising, too.
University Housing Director Angela Brown said the university estimated there were 100 more students in the residence halls this year then last. With a prospective 15,500 students in residence halls now, University Spokesman Terry Denbow said it's because of the university's residence life program.
"We have really promoted the whole living and learning concept at MSU," Denbow said.
Residence Hall Association spokesman Brian Winters said more students are living in residence halls because life on campus is always getting better.
"Things like concerts and cafeteria services offered by RHA is making it a better place to live," Winters said.
The rise in residence-hall occupancy comes at a time when the student body is shrinking. University management analyst Bill Sperber at MSU said the overall number of students at the university has gone down this year.
"It was planned to go down," Sperber said. "The provost and president thought that we were reaching capacity."
Van Ravensway said larger complexes offering more luxuries make it harder to get occupants in independently-owned places farther off campus, and students headed to corporate housing or residence halls.
"Lots of amenities and major investments make nice places for students to live," Van Ravensway said. "Smaller duplexes can't necessarily compete with that."
