In December, Syracuse University launched a new online search portal to help students find off-campus housing.

Two months later, major landlords in the university neighborhood are still divided over the idea.

SU launched the tool to “create the best living environment for students,” Joe Personte, director of SU’s Office of Off Campus and Commuter Services, said, and properties listed on the site must be compliant with the city’s housing codes.

But University Hill neighborhood landlords said SU’s housing portal can give students the wrong impression about the safety of the properties listed on the site.

Ben Tupper, who owns Rent From Ben — a housing company that rents about 150 properties to tenants in Syracuse — said he has no plans to list his properties on the portal.

Tupper said an initial proposal of the site in 2016 immediately caused backlash from landlords. Those landlords told SU officials that determining whether a landlord is reputable would take too much work for one person, and it could open SU to legal liability, he said.

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Personte said SU is not trying to determine who is a good landlord or label certain properties as safe.

A disclaimer on the portal states that a property being listed on the site does not represent an endorsement by SU or Off Campus Partners — the company running the site — of the landlord, their properties or their business practices.

Off Campus Partners did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Personte said the disclaimer does not mean that SU cannot guarantee a property is safe.

“What we’re saying is that the properties are up to code based on city regulations,” he said. “That’s all we’re saying.”

When asked how the university defined “up to code,” Personte said that definition was up to the city. He wouldn’t say how SU would determine which violations were acceptable.

One of Tupper’s main concerns with the portal was that SU has not said how it will ensure properties that were originally approved to be on the site remain up to code, he said.

“This is a living document that needs to be updated every day,” Tupper said. “Someone literally has to call the city every day and say, ‘What are the changes to the 6,000 properties listed on our website?’”

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Ken Towsley, director of the city’s code enforcement department, was not made available for an interview.

Personte did not detail what SU’s process was for checking that properties remained up to code, or how properties that develop code violations after being originally approved would be removed from the site.

In a follow-up email, Personte said SU will work with the code enforcement department to “verify code and registry compliance in a timely manner.”

“To do this right costs money and is labor intensive, and SU doesn’t want to do that,” Tupper said. “This company doesn’t want to do that.”

Andrew Alarcon, general manager of The Marshall, said Off Campus Partners set up a listing for the company, but he doesn’t plan on using the site. The Marshall already does well with its current advertising, he said.

Erica Thomas, property manager for OPR Developers, said SU has “good intentions” behind the tool and that it will be a relief for parents to know the university has its own housing sources. OPR plans to advertise on the housing portal for the fall 2019 semester, and the company will still have ads on other sites like OrangeHousing and RentCollegePads, she added.

Greystar — a global property development company — owns Campus West and University Village Apartments on Colvin, both of which are listed on the site.

“We chose to advertise on the site because we value our partnership with the University,” said Craig Wack, press coordinator for Greystar, in an email. “We see the housing portal as an essential tool to market our communities to students.”

SU’s portal only provides the “ground floor of information” a tenant needs when searching for an apartment, Sharon Sherman, executive director of the Greater Syracuse Tenants Network, said.

The city requires properties classified as one- and two-family homes to be on its rental registry, but the process for obtaining a rental certificate doesn’t involve an interior inspection of the property, Sherman said.

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Having a rental certificate doesn’t guarantee a property is safe, she said, and landlords don’t lose their certificates if they have a history of similar code violations.

“Really, the issue is if there are outstanding code violations and whether they have (fixed) any violations and how long since they had violations,” she said.

Larger buildings classified as three- or more family homes need exterior and interior inspections every five years. Sherman and Tupper both said major issues could arise with the property before another inspection is done. If a tenant requests an interior inspection for either type of home, though, the landlord can be forced by a court order to allow interior inspections.

Sherman said SU’s portal should provide a link to the city’s website for code violations, where tenants can look up any property and see its history of violations. But even the city codes don’t cover other issues a tenant should look out for, including whether a property has security cameras or exterior lighting, she said.

Off Campus Partners will send landlords on the site an email reminding them to renew their certificates, Personte said.

SU sent a request for proposal to Donna Glassberg, owner of OrangeHousing.com, in spring 2018. The university wanted a vendor to create a housing portal that would only allow properties with rental certificates that don’t have major code violations.

OrangeHousing.com does not check if landlords have a rental certificate or if the properties listed have open code violations. Glassberg spent a week drafting a letter to SU explaining why the portal was a bad idea. SU never responded, she said.

“I told them there are many more factors other than whether there’s a certificate,” she said. “Just because someone has a driver’s license doesn’t mean they’re a safe driver. Just because a landlord has this certificate doesn’t mean they’re a good landlord.”

Glassberg started OrangeHousing in 1997 and helped found the Office of Off Campus and Commuter Services in 1998. She has served on the office’s advisory board since then.

She said OrangeHousing has helped thousands of students over the years. Glassberg said she helps students figure out what type of housing is right for them, gives advice on how to make sure properties are safe and sometimes even intervenes with landlords on the behalf of tenants.

“People need to be educated and communicate with landlords so they could all be more vigilant,” Glassberg said. “You need to be vigilant about the real issues instead of sugar-coating it and sending out false messages.”

Published on February 5, 2019 at 10:59 pm

Contact Casey: casey@dailyorange.com | @caseydarnell_