Decrepit SFR's in College Towns, (Observations on Santa Cruz)

[Jacob Y.]

Hey Everybody,
I was curious to hear people's thoughts on the following: I live in a town with a strong college influence - Santa Cruz, California. About 17k students here, 60k or so residents in Santa Cruz City. This creates an interesting sub-market of rentals, and there are a few distinct problems that I see, and was curious to hear what people have to say about this, anything to add, etc.

Since the University houses 750-1500 students on campus, many of the rest rent houses. A SFR market emerges that looks like this: crappy houses that can command a high rental price by packing students in, often in illegal structures, basements, converted garages, trailers, vans, tents, whatever. Now, not all of the landlords are slumlords, but many certainly are. Some houses are quite nice, but many are decrepit, and command the same or more than a much nicer SFR next door rents for. Now, obviously I can see that students are problematic renters, but I have heard some amazing landlord stories and seen some incredible living situations. Basically, there are a lot of people being taken advantage of, spurred on by market conditions.

Another aspect to it is that students are dispersed through-out all neighborhoods, and are often hated by neighbors (understandably of course, but it is a situation created by the university presence). Santa Cruz has a unique noise ordinance in that police do not have to provide a warning before writing a hefty fine for a noise complaint. Those houses can then be red tagged, and future (unaware) renters can be fined at the second level without any notice. This is a fascinating dynamic and creates an unpleasant tension between students and residents in many neighborhoods.

I see big problems with these things on many levels. Not only this, but the University of planning expansion. Comments? Possible solutions? Anybody else living in University towns? Very curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Jacob