FIST fight at PSU

When Portland State University junior Trevor Bryant got notice of a hefty rent increase last year, he didn't just get mad, he got busy. Since then, he has been researching College Housing Northwest, a local nonprofit that for 33 years has had a monopoly on managing PSU's 11 residence halls. He's discovered an organization originally founded by students, but which now seems to resist their efforts to get involved in any meaningful discussion over important issues. "It's a losing battle when you're fighting people who are getting paid full-time to work against us," says Bryant. "They're supposed to be working for us."

After the rent-hike notices went out last year, Bryant, who is studying community development at PSU, started circulating a protest petition. Bryant was a member of the Resident's Council, a group of student tenants who are supposed to advise CHNW but, in practice, have little influence over most matters beyond whether to purchase a billiard table or what kind of cake to order for a party. CHNW is "happy to help with tenant concerns, as long as those concerns are mundane," says Gabrielle Gilbertson, another Resident's Council member. "They're not there to listen to rent issues or management concerns--the big problems."

So, last fall, Bryant founded the Formation for Independent Student Tenants to further research CHNW and inform students of their rights. He discovered that conflicts between CHNW and students have flared up more than once during the past three decades, over issues ranging from rent hikes to the board's accountability. Bryant also got the student senate to take up the housing issue, after a divisive February meeting that prompted two senators and many students to walk out.

Rents are set by CHNW at 80 percent of what market surveys show is charged for comparable units (see chart, below). FIST, however, disputes that the market surveys accurately reflect housing equivalent to that provided by CHNW. Bryant says many students find better and cheaper housing, though often farther from the center of the city.

Additionally, Bryant argues that rents for college students should not be linked to market rates, because students are supposed to be studying, not working to pay rent. FIST would like to see PSU adopt a system similar to federally subsidized housing, in which students pay no more than 30 percent of their income for housing and utilities. (That translates to $338 per month for a full-time minimum-wage worker.) Low-income housing advocates interviewed by WW said they don't know of any American university that has adopted such a system, but Bryant thinks it should be considered. "Students are a very vulnerable population," he says.

But the FIST fight is about more than just rent, says Bryant. Students feel their housing is managed by an organization that has strayed from its original mission to be an advocate for the students.

In 1969, three PSU students founded what was then called Portland Student Services Inc. The trio, which included Stan Amy, founder of Nature's Northwest, and John Werneken, who's worked for and with the city for several years, saw an opportunity to get students out of nearby expensive and decrepit apartments and into new and rehabbed units recently purchased by PSU. The nonprofit was managed by a Board of Directors, consisting of four student directors and three public directors, elected by student tenants. It was advised by the Residents' Council, which has representatives from each of the buildings the organization manages.

The idea was to give students a voice in the management of their housing, but by the late '70s many students felt disenfranchised and silenced. Changes in the bylaws gave the Board of Directors sole right to elect and remove other members of the board. Because the student members come and go frequently, power shifted to the public members, who in recent years have included former executives from Arthur Andersen, First Interstate Bank and Burger King. Over the years, the volunteer board has bumped staffers' salaries. CHNW's tax forms show that in 2000, its five paid officers had a combined salary of $450,947 and benefits worth $42,552. CHNW President Gary Meddaugh makes $151,952, almost $6,000 more than PSU President Daniel Bernstine.

The loss of student control is exemplified by the fact that, despite bylaws stating that all tenants have the right to vote in all matters, the last vote put to all the tenants was in 1996, to change the name of the organization to College Housing Northwest. Werneken says students shouldn't be surprised that they've been cut out of the organization he founded. "Once you change the structure, you can't argue about power anymore; you don't have any," he says.

Having lost their ability to influence CHNW internally, students found a chance to apply some outside pressure. Changes in federal tax law allow the university to contract with a for-profit corporation for housing management, and CHNW's contract is up next year. Requests for information, the first step in the contract process, were sent to 18 organizations a few months ago and are due back at the end of April. It's possible that the university will stick with CHNW, but Jay Kenton, Associate Vice President for Finance and Planning at PSU, seems serious about investigating the competition. "The relationship has waxed and waned over the years," he says. "I want to see what else is out there."

FIST, meanwhile, has contacted the North American Students of Cooperation, a federation of housing cooperatives, about submitting a proposal that would place management of student housing directly into the hands of PSU students. Plan B would be to set up a completely independent housing cooperative, which, FIST says, could cut rents in half.

Despite their concerns, student activists say they're not necessarily eager to oust CHNW. "None of us really want to see College Housing Northwest go; they might be replaced with something much worse," said FIST member Annie Stewart, who'd like to see CHNW implement several reforms, like a grievance process for tenants. "On paper, College Housing Northwest works very well, but they're deviating from that. We'd like to see them get back on track. An organization started by the students can only be reorganized by the students."

How PSU's Housing Stacks Up (average monthly rent)

WWeek 2015