Maryland homeowners fed up with rowdy university students came outin force last week in Annapolis in favor of a proposal to increase funds for late-night patrols in party-prone neighborhoods.
Several urged a House of Delegates committee to advance legislation authorizing the state?s Department of Housing and Community Development to provide grants for governments to hire after-hours code enforcement officers in university areas. The move, they said, would free up campus and county police to focus on higher priorities.
“Condoms and trash are sometimes strewn across our lawn in the morning after parties,” said Dodd Ellis, who lives near Towson University in Baltimore County. “Naked students are walking around on roofs or streaking down the street. No parent should have to explain that to their children.”
Bill sponsor Del. Sue Aumann, a Democrat who represents Towson, also has proposed a study on capping the number of tenants in rental units near universities ? which many opponents said discriminates against students. In Baltimore County, boarding houses are limited to two unrelated occupants, but apartments are unrestricted.
In Prince George?s County, home of the University of Maryland, College Park, rentals are capped at five unrelated people per home. Sara Imhulse, an assistant to College Park?s city manager, testified the funding would help code enforcement officers tackle parties as big as 200 students.
Students cram into rental housing because of a shortage of affordable off-campus housing, said Freidson, president of the student government association.
“The best way to use funds is to increase student housing,” Freidson said. “Provide incentives for developers to build it.”
Landlords also spoke against the proposal, saying many complaints about students such as trash, noise and public intoxication can only be handled by police. John Hawvemale, a property owner in College Park, said Aumann?s bill unfairly targets students.
“If you substituted ?African-American,? ?Jewish? or ?gay? anywhere you see ?student,? people would be appalled,” Hawvemale said.
