housing

With U.S. unemployment rates at a record high in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising market rates in a low-supply market will place low-income West Harlem tenants at heightened risk of eviction and virus contraction, according to housing experts.

Tamara Hache was supposed to spend her summer researching 19th-century literature in Argentina. The third-year PhD candidate in Latin American and Iberian cultures had secured a research grant and planned on subletting her Columbia-owned apartment, hopping on a plane to her hometown of Buenos Aires, and working on her dissertation while spending time with friends and family.

Grace Bertelli, CC ’21, found herself scrambling for housing options on Sunday morning when she learned she had to vacate her dorm. Members of her family are immunocompromised, so going home could risk exposing them to COVID-19 and endangering their lives.

After a major transition in work and living accommodations for students amidst the COVID-19 crisis, Barnard has extended its housing registration deadlines to allow students more time to form groups. Columbia housing registration dates have not been changed and registration is already in full swing. If you are planning on living on campus this year, make sure to keep the following deadlines in mind, so you do not lose your chances at housing.

The housing registration period is starting, and as you’re scrambling to figure out where and with whom you’ll be living next year, you might have overlooked that the housing registration process is completely changing this year for Columbia. Housing registration will now be online and there will not be any in-person registration appointments. To help you navigate these changes, Spectrum is here to guide you through the Shaft, which has added new features to adapt to these new rules.

City officials declined to give money to Community Board 9 based on the group’s preliminary budget recommendations for housing and park renovations for the next fiscal year. However, the mayor’s office agreed to allocate money for youth education, which was a financial priority for CB9, a local advisory board representing Morningside Heights and surrounding areas.

Just through the front door of the brownstone at 542 West 114th Street, strings of lights run along the walls of the room on the right, casting a warm glow through the windows and onto the sidewalk below. A print of a Gustav Klimt painting is tacked up above the fireplace, and the room is full of a hodge-podge of furniture. In this front room and throughout the brownstone, residents host club meetings and Friendsgivings, cook alongside each other in the kitchen, and chat over homework. Here, Columbia’s transfer student community has found a home. The residents trade in corridor-style living for a living room shared with neighbors who can relate to their path at Columbia. On a campus where almost every inch of space is claimed before they arrive, here is a house that has been set aside for them—but only for this year.

Senators raised concerns surrounding a lack of available campus housing for graduate students and faculty in light of an expanding student body, specifically citing barriers posed by salary requirements for international students, at Friday’s senate plenary.