Emily Levin

If you thought you’d heard the last of the Harbor Point/UMass Boston Drama, you’re wrong.  We left off with me paying rent for an apartment I couldn’t live in.  I didn’t know why and the school did nothing to help me understand.

Yesterday morning I called the Harbor Point Leasing Office to see how and when I could get my security deposit and last month’s rent back.  They directed me to the Management Office.  The Management Office told me that I should receive it thirty days after moving out, and when they found out that I moved out in May they said they’d call me back. Five o’clock rolls around and they still hadn’t called, so I called them.  The girl on the other end of the phone takes my information down and tells me that she’ll call me back in five minutes. An hour passes so I call back and leave a message.  About two hours after that, Heidi (part of the Harbor Point Management; not just a receptionist) calls me back to address my questions.

Apparently, our apartment information on her computer does not say that we had an Early Vacate Letter. It says that we broke our lease.  She explains to me that this means that we are responsible for our rent until the end of August.  When I try to tell her that we did not break our lease, but instead an Early Vacate Letter was signed, she tells me that I will have to talk to Justin Holstrom about that because he is in charge of that area. Not only do we have to continue to pay, but she tells me that one of my roommates had not been paying since January (before any drama even started) and so our security deposit has been applied to rent that was due.  We were going to owe Harbor Point money at the end of August as opposed to getting our one thousand dollars back.

So it all becomes clear.  I didn’t understand why the rules of the Vacate Letter no longer applied to me. Now I know that it was because we "broke our lease" instead.  Neither Justin Holstrom nor Kelly Meehan ever mentioned this as an explanation.  And it’s not as if I didn’t ask.  I asked multiple people at Harbor Point to explain this to me and no one offered this as an answer.  Kelly Meehan didn’t give me any explanation at all after speaking with Justin Holstrom herself. 

I have been wronged by UMass Boston and Harbor Point Apartments.  I wish that no other student ever has to go through the mess that I’ve gone through.  This was my first year in the "big bad world" and I certainly got the brunt of it.  I’ve tasted the injustice, the hardship, and the utter unfairness of it all.  I’ve been playing by the rules and in return I am the one who is punished. I’m living a sad life of earning money to pay rent for an apartment that I cannot live in.  Now after months of fruitless work, I’m going to owe money? Because my roommate (who lives with her parents and is not hurting for money, for the record) flakes out on her rent?  

This whole situation makes me sick.  I’m so thankful that I’m leaving on exchange in a few weeks.

You’d think that after everything that has happened, the university may try a little bit harder to help make my experience with them better.   Unfortunately, that isn’t how it works around here.

A couple of months ago, I received a letter from Harbor Point about an Early Vacate Letter.  They said that each roommate could sign the letter that says that we will be out of the apartment by July 31st (even though our lease ends August 31st) and they will reimburse our last month’s rent which we already paid.  This way, Harbor Point can rent out our apartment earlier to new  and unsuspecting students of UMB. So I went to the leasing office and signed the Vacate letter that said July 31st.  Sounds like a good deal, huh? Get out of the lease a month early?  Well, don’t celebrate just yet.  You should know by now that things aren’t so simple.

Justin Holstrom, the Director of Leasing at Harbor Point, caught wind that no one was living in my apartment.  With both of my roommates living at home for the summer, and me as a stray for fear that they might come back, there were no active occupants of the apartment.  Justin Holstrom called me and proposed a deal.  He would change the date on the Early Vacate Letter from July 31st to May 31st, and this way they could rent our apartment out earlier.  I agreed to that over the phone.

When May 31st came around, I got nervous about not having to pay rent.  So I called the leasing office and they said that the apartment had not been rented yet, so my roommates and I were still responsible to pay rent. 

I’m going to lay down the facts for you clean and simple right here.  Three college girls sign a year-long lease.  The company then tells them that they can take the apartment off of our hands if we sign an Early Vacate Letter for May 31st and move everything out of the apartment.  The company also expects us to continue to pay rent for an apartment that we aren’t living in.  Can anyone say, "Taken advantage of?!"

I go to the Leasing Office to talk to them about it.  First I talk to this girl (I think her name is Kate) who takes me into her office and explains to me that I am responsible for paying rent until they find someone new to rent the apartment or our lease is up September 1st.  Whichever comes first.  Obviously, I found it absurd that they were asking me to pay rent while they try to rent out my apartment.  I tried to talk to her but she wasn’t even listening to me.  Then she passed me off to Justin Holstrom. 

I go into Justin Holstrom’s office and tell him my concerns.  At first he made it seem like he really cared about what my concern was.  He even said something along the lines of, "Well, we certainly don’t want you to have a bad experience with Harbor Point."  But when I started to tell him my perceptions about the Early Vacate Letter, he quickly stopped caring about what I had to say.  Justin was baffled by the fact that I might think I wouldn’t have to pay for my empty apartment.  He said, "Well, why would Harbor Point let you out of the lease early?  That isn’t beneficial to the company at all!" I told him that it seemed like bad business ettiquette to keep a tenant paying for an apartment when the original agreement was to be reimbursed for the months remaining on the lease after the Early Vacate Letter date.  At that, he paused and said, "I see what you mean."  But then quickly continued to tell me that I could be paying until the end of August and that they were doing me a favor by trying to rent the apartment out early.  I couldn’t get anywhere with them.  Not one person in that office treated me like an adult.  Not one person acted like my concern was valid (except for that split second where Justin seemed stumped).  I walked out of that office even more frustrated and confused than before. 

This is where it gets especially good.  Where should a nineteen-year-old college student turn when they are having troubles with their housing?  Maybe her Student Housing Office? I should have known better.  Anyone who reads this blog can see that I am clearly being taken advantage of, but the Director of Student Housing didn’t care one bit.  I sent an email to the Office of Student Housing and I CCed Kelly Meehan, Director of Student Housing, and Joyce Morgan, the Dean of Students, explaining the situation and asking for help.  Kelly Meehan got back to me and asked if it would be ok for her to contact Justin Holstrom to figure out what is going on.  I gave her the go-ahead and gave her his contact information in case she needed it.  Joyce Morgan emailed me back and said that she heard that Kelly was taking care of it.  At this point, I wrote my last blog post about my UMASS Boston Experience.  Kelly Meehan sent me an email saying that she was disappointed to read that blog post.  Then she informed me that my roommates and I were still responsible for paying rent until Harbor Point rents our apartment out.  She points out that she thinks it is a better option then trying to sublet it myself (wasn’t she/the Office of Student Housing supposed to be helping me with that?).   I responded and told her that, "I hope my experience might help UMass Boston to develop a plan to help their students with housing problems as they promise." And also wrote that I appreciate any help I get from her and Joyce Morgan.

So here I am.  Left high and dry.  I have no permanent place to live; I’ve been staying on numerous friends’ and family’s couches.  I must pay rent for Harbor Point to lease out my apartment at their own leisure.  I have reached out to get help from the resources I thought I had, only to basically be told, "Too bad. It could be worse."  The Director of Student Housing did not explain why I still had to pay rent.  She did not try to meet with me.  She did nothing other than tell me that I had to pay. 

Now I am left to struggle on my own, once again.  Thank you UMass Boston, for all of your help.  I’m so glad that I am able to get help from my university when I am being taken advantage of by the apartment company that you set me up with.  I’m eternally grateful.

Dear Prospective Student or Family of a Prospective Student or Current Faculty,

I am writing this blog post because I want to share my experiences with UMass Boston as a first year student here.

This was my first year in college and at UMass Boston.  It began in September 2009.  During the summer, I began the process of getting housing near campus.  You probably already know that there is no on-campus housing that is provided by the school.  There is, however, two main apartment complexes that the university recommends.  The university  also has a Office of Student Housing to help with the process of finding housing and roommates that also attend UMass Boston. 

Through UMass Boston’s Office of Student Housing, I immediately began the process of "Roommate Matching."  This process consists of filling out a Roommate Matching form and then waiting to hear back from the office about which students have been matched as roommates.  And so, I waited.  I received one list of four girls (including me) via email and directions to contact these girls to see if they were still looking for a roommate.  One of the girls was not, but there were three of us who were.  We notified the Office of Student Housing that we still needed one more roommate in order to fill the required 4 students for a 2 bedroom apartment which is the encouraged arrangement by Student Housing.  My potential roommates and I did not hear from the Student Housing Office (specifically a woman named Alanna) even after we each tried to notify them of the situation multiple times.  September was fast approaching and we had no place to live.  The Office of Student Housing was not helping, so we took our housing paper work out of the UMass system and took it directly over to Harbor Point Apartments.  By working with Harbor Point Directly, we were able to get an apartment for the three of us at a cheaper price than if we had done it through the school.

I met both of my roommates prior to getting the apartment and we agreed to move in together.  The apartment would house Rachel, a sophomore in college but a first-year UMass Boston Student, Yasmine, and I, both freshman and first-years at UMass Boston.  Rachel and I would share a room while Yasmine paid $45 more than us to have her own room.  The electricity was in Yasmine’s name and she was responsible for paying that bill.  The Internet/Cable was in Rachel’s name and her and I were responsible for splitting that bill.  We worked it out this way because we each ended up paying the same amount. 

Starting in November there began to be problems.  Rachel called a meeting in which she told Yasmine and I that she wanted to move out but she was looking for another roommate to take her spot.   When Christmas Break came around, Rachel and Yasmine both went home.  Yasmine came back to the aparmtent when school began, but Rachel did not.  She kept saying that she would, but she never did and eventually we stopped asking.  She did however, come to the apartment every once in a while to throw a party and then left without cleaning up.  She also continued to collect half of the Internet/Cable money from me.  In March, we found out that she had not paid the Internet/Cable bill since January because it got shut off.  Rachel never admitted to the nonpayment and she eventually (but with much resistance) canceled the service so that I could re-open it in my own name.  Rachel was no longer fond of me because of this exchange, and she continued to live at her parents house. 

In May, Yasmine also started problems.  Honestly, our problems began with a pot and pan.  I seriously did not see this one coming.  We had been getting along very well, we even had a class together.  I let her use my book for it (Economics Class) since she never bought one and we studied together and hung out together.  We were pretty good friends.  If we ever had roommate-related problems we would address them right away and the source was usually a miscommunication anyway.  This time, Yasmine did not come to me to talk about the problem.  She automatically got mad and refused to talk with me about it.  She even refused to give my Economics book back to me because of the situation.  I emailed the Office of Studnet Housing about the saituation hoping that they could help resolve it.  After a couple days of being mad, threatening me and my things, and refusing to give my book back, Yasmine came into my room and woke me from a nap by yelling at me.  She then threw a bottle at me, pushed me, and pulled my hair.  At this point I called the police.  I left the apartment after a police report was filed and did not return.  I did file a restraining order against her as well because I was afraid of what she might do if I saw her on campus or something.

The next day the Housing Office got back to me.  I went in for a meeting with them and explained what had happened.  They told me that they would send Yasmine an email to see if she would go in for a meeting.  I told them that I really hoped that Yasmine would respond to them, but I honestly doubted that she would.  Sure enough, no response.  They had no further advice for me.

She still had my Economics book which I had rented (and therefore had to return) so I still needed someone to help me contact her because I couldn’t for fear that she would irrationally harm me again.  At this time I also contacted the Harbor Point Leasing Office and Management Office to see if there was any way that I could get off of the lease because my roommate had made it unsafe for me to be there.  They said that there was nothing that they could do, but they did tell me to talk to their Housing Opportunities Unlimited office to resolve a roommate issue.  I did go over to talk to them and they were able to contact and speak to Yasmine.  They told me after speaking to Yasmine that she was refusing to give my Economics book back until Wednesday May 12th, just because.  I agreed to that because at least I wouldn’t have to pay a replacement fee for the book because I was getting it back.

Meanwhile, the Dean of Student’s office called me back and my mother answered.  She expressed her own frustration that I had gotten zero help from the school.  I was even more frustrated than my mom was.  I had told my story countless times by that time and had cried in front of too many people.  I was traumatized and in danger in my own apartment and for that reason, I was not living there.  I had been sleeping on friend’s and family’s couches and the school had no help for me.  The Office of Student Housing left me to deal with it myself.  The Dean of Students set up a meeting with me.

Again I told my story and cried out my fear and frustration to the Dean of Students, Joyce Morgan, and Stand-In Director of Student Housing, Kelly Meehan, of UMass Boston.  They told me that they would help.  The Dean of Students said that she would address the act of violence between two UMass students.  On the subject of my living arrangement, they told me that I would have to talk to Alanna (the same woman who had "helped" my roommates and I during the summer).  I told them that I had already asked Alana if I could find a new person to take my place in the apartment but that she told me that the only way to do that was to ask my roommates to fill out a Roommate Matching form.  That was really not helpful because both of my roommates hated me and one had assaulted me.  I was not about to ask them to fill out a Roommate Matching Form.  So the Stand-In Director of Housing, Kelly Meehan, asked me what the ideal situation would be.  I told her that ideally, the university would recognize that this is a dangerous situation and to remove me from the apartment and try to find a new roommate to replace me.  She said that she will try to help me with finding someone to take my spot but she could not do anything to release me from the lease because Harbor Point was an independent company from the school.  Our lease stood irrelevant to what happened between UMass Boston students.

Kelly Meehan then walked me down to the Office of Student Housing in order to help me find someone to fill my space.  After resistance from Alanna, Kelly Meehan eventually got me what I wanted which was to make an ad for my spot in the apartment so that other UMass Boston students could have access to it. 

I emailed Kelly Meehan the ad later that day and I never heard back from her.  I sent her another email to make sure I was sending things to the correct email address and still never heard back from her.  I looked her up in the school directory and I did have the correct email address.  My frustration continues.

My experience with UMass Boston has been absolutely horrible.  I did well in my classes and I like the academics, but my frustration and bad experiences with the housing portion of it outweigh any good experiences I have had.  I plan on transferring to a school with dorms.  If I had gone to any other state school, I wouldn’t have had this truly terrible experience.  I would have had a support system within the school to call on.  I would have been able to change rooms before being assaulted. I would have been able to speak to school authorities and they would have had a preexisting plan to help me out instead of me telling them what I needed them to do. 

I would advise against any new high school graduates from attending UMass Boston unless they are continuing to live with their parents until they graduate.