Town Holds Off-Campus Housing Seminar for Stony Brook Students

Regardless of whether a person is a longtime resident or a short-term resident, the Town of Brookhaven is obligated to protect your safety.

That’s according to deputy town attorney David Moran, who was one of the presenters at a seminar on off-campus housing at Stony Brook University on Tuesday night.

His primary message to students: It’s illegal to rent a room in the Town of Brookhaven. Illegally renting a room poses threats not just to the safety of the tenants, but also to the quality-of-life of the neighboring homeowners.

Moran advised students to take a walk-through of a house before signing a lease, and he delivered a list of things students should look for to determine whether a house is illegally operating as a rooming house: Dead bolts or key locks on bedroom doors; non-operating or overloaded wall outlets; lack of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; blocked egress windows. He also advised students to get to know their housemates.

Moran also said students should be weary of landlords who pack students into off-campus houses sometimes by the dozen.

“He doesn’t care about you, he doesn’t care about safety”– but rather he cares about his bottom line, Moran said.

He gave specific examples of things that town investigators have seen inside illegal rooming houses: kitchen cabinets locked up and labeled according to room; refrigerator shelves similarly delineated; and students keeping their valuables in their cars because they can’t have locks on their bedroom doors to keep them safe.

Moran questioned whether that’s the kind of quality-of-life the students are looking for in off-campus housing.

“Education is one of the tools that we need to put out here,” he said. “If you choose to live a certain way to save a dollar, that has a price.”

The problem also lies in the fact that some students who choose to live off campus engage in party lifestyles that harm nearby residents by decreasing their quality of life and property values.

“The problem isn’t the two or three kids who want to live together, study hard and do the right thing,” he said. It’s the students who want the “‘Animal House,’ Greek row, parties-every-Friday” kind of “college lifestyle.”

“Stuff I probably did when I was in college, but I did it in the appropriate location,” Moran said.

He said he fears that something bad will happen if the illegal housing problem lingers.

“Something tragic is bound to happen, which is why the electeds are taking it so seriously, why the university is taking it so seriously,” he said.

Michael Arens, assistant vice president for government and community relations at Stony Brook, summed it up this way: “It all comes down to the fact that we’re concerned about your safety, and the more you’re educated on how to find a safe home off campus that suits your needs, the more safe you are and it puts us at a comfort level.”

Fewer than 20 students attended the seminar.

One of those students, an out-of-state student who did not want her name published, said the town’s housing policy is extremely unfair. In her own hometown, she said, renting a room is completely normal.

“They need to consider what people’s individual needs are and not just say ‘that’s impossible,’” she said. “That’s people’s individual decision.”