Amherst's longstanding and controversial bylaw prohibiting more than four unrelated people from living in one house—a bylaw most often invoked against students—is back in the news after it was used to evict a young woman from a house on East Pleasant Street earlier this month. Noise and improper parking caused the complaints that led to the eviction, which has prompted a group from UMass's Student Government Association, led by SGA commuter senator Derek Khanna, to organize opposition to the ordinance.
Khanna, a junior at UMass, told the Advocate he and others from the SGA's off-campus housing committee will approach Amherst's town meeting in November to make a case for overturning the bylaw. Khanna said he believes the bylaw is unconstitutional, though since it has been upheld in court, he isn't optimistic about getting it rescinded on constitutional grounds. But another problem he sees with it is that it is selectively enforced.
"It seems to be targeted at UMass students who happen to be in a residential neighborhood," he said. "One of my friends got an eviction notice and there aren't even four people in the house! It's an unenforceable law. The residents have a lot of legitimate concerns: rowdy parties, excessive parking, overusing town resources, affecting neighbors negatively. These are serious problems, but we don't think this is the correct avenue to approach them."
Enforcement seems selective in another way: the town apparently exercises little surveillance over rental properties and tenant recruitment, so investigation is triggered only by complaints, while many overcrowded houses don't feel the force of the law. Khanna told us, "My friends and I are looking for six-bedroom houses and we've found dozens of these houses, and the owners say, Move in and we'll just put four of you on the lease."
The latter point is crucial. The ordinance and the recent eviction are only the tip of the iceberg in a situation in which far more is at stake than a little racket and a few extra cars. The student housing business in Amherst is tough and lucrative and can pit students' safety against the profits it generates. The most sinister thing about the ordinance is that it is sometimes used by landlords to blackmail students into keeping quiet about dangerous code violations out of fear that they or their friends will be evicted—a particularly undesirable outcome if it happens amid a press of papers and exams, or if it would force a student to leave school and forfeit a part of the semester's tuition.
