Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990 TAG: 9006060277
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE SHENANDOAH BUREAU
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Long
It made him mad.
"I said, `You just don't do that,' " recalled the normally soft-spoken NAACP president, who charged off the porch to complain.
Later, Harris saw a young woman in his yard beneath his kitchen window, and a young man climbing over his fence.
"I said, `The party is not here in this yard; please leave,' " Harris said.
Harris lives in a troubled neighborhood.
Washington and Lee University students are coming in increasing numbers to this predominantly black section of Lexington, home for generations to low-income residents - many of them service personnel for W&L and Virginia Military Institute.
The students say the proximity to the campus just a few blocks away is irresistible. But long-term residents say the students have brought with them litter, noise and disrespect for the neighborhood.
And some, complaining of student-fueled rent increases, say they have had to move out.
"The students come in and jack the rents up because they can afford to pay it. Poor people can't," said Shirley Wells, a former Lexington resident who now lives in rent-subsidized Valley View apartments in Rockbridge County.
Wells, a hotel cook, said she would like to live in Lexington again but can't afford it. "The jobs here are not paying that kind of money."
Some people, such as Harris, say the old neighborhood is in danger of breaking up if student housing trends continue. "The neighborhoods very well could become havens for students," Harris said.
Already, when families look for low-cost housing in Lexington these days, "They can't find it because it's all rented to the students," Harris said. "It [students in the area] cuts down on the number of what I call `legitimate families.' "
He suggested W&L make its unused dormitory space available to low-income residents who can no longer find a place to live in town.
"I don't think the suggestion is a very practical one," said Frank Parsons, W&L's capital-planning coordinator.
For one thing, low-income residents might not like the students' noisy lifestyle, Parsons said. But Parsons also conceded the student migration into the low-income neighborhoods has caused problems, both in community relations and in housing costs.
Parsons said the university must teach the students to be better neighbors. But he also noted that some of the houses now rented to students were empty and deteriorating before they moved in, and that the renovations have helped fatten the city's tax rolls. And Parsons said the students who live off campus have a positive overall economic impact on the city.
W&L spokesman Brian Shaw said there will "always be friction between young people and people who live in established neighborhoods, who just have a different philosophy of life."
Asked if he thought the students were slowly driving blacks out of town, Shaw said he didn't know. He said rent prices "are a function of the marketplace."
Others are convinced of the student impact. A recent student-done survey in the low-income neighborhoods found many people who said they believed the students had driven up rent and housing prices.
"Where else would a family of five have to pay $600 a month for a dumpy, tiny house?" one survey respondent wrote. Others said it was difficult finding a place to live for under $400 a month.
Whatever the cause, many - including Lexington Mayor H.E. "Buddy" Derrick - agree something is awry.
"We don't want to displace minorities. We don't want to replace low- and moderate-income families. The city needs everyone," said Derrick. "Something ultimately has got to be done."
But Derrick and others say there may be no quick solution to the loss of low-income residents in the neighborhoods known as Diamond Hill and Green Hill - a portion of the city that has long been a bastion of moderately priced housing.
Not that no one is trying. The city has applied for a $700,000 federal grant to pay for housing rehabilitation in the neighborhood, said Lexington Housing Coordinator Charles Wohlrab.
The city also is working with local banks on a plan to buy up vacant houses in the neighborhood and save them for low-income residents, Wohlrab said. In addition, he said, VMI has made four old houses available for low-income residents, though they need repairs first.
He also said subsidized housing is available in Lexington, Buena Vista and the county.
Wohlrab said students began moving into the neighborhoods in force about five years ago - about the time W&L went coed.
The neighborhoods have a total of about 500 people living in them, he said. By the university's latest count, 137 of the neighborhood residents are students from affluent W&L.
Their shiny, expensive cars make an odd picture alongside the mostly modest houses, but long-term residents say that's the least of the problem.
They cite not only the rising rents but the beer cans that dot the students' yards, the loud parties and the difficulty these days in finding a parking space.
"It used to be quiet. Everybody lived in peace and harmony," said longtime resident Alice Moore.
Now, among other problems, Moore and other church-goers find themselves cleaning party litter from in front of their church before Sunday morning services, she said.
"They just don't seem to care about the neighborhood they live in," Moore said.
Parsons said current fraternity renovations might eventually draw some of the students back out of the neighborhood, noting that in the past, nearly all W&L students lived in fraternities.
The students, meanwhile, say there is not enough room now at the fraternities even for upperclassmen. And they say the low-income neighborhoods, located just a few blocks from the university, are convenient.
Some also said the living experience has been valuable.
"It kind of opened my eyes," said Travis Wilhite, a W&L student who went to a mostly white high school in Austin, Texas. "You can drive by in the evenings and everyone in the neighborhoods is out in the front yards. They're all out in the streets talking to each other. They wave to you when you go by. That would never happen in my neighborhood."
"If I sit out here for an hour, everybody in the neighborhood will go by," said Louis Kaye, a student from Windermere, Fla., who lives on Diamond Street. "We've become friends with some of them. But we've already been robbed once."
Asked about the possibility his low-income neighbors will have to leave the city, Wilhite said, "I know it's a concern. I'd be angry if someone forced me out of my neighborhood."
Wilhite said his fraternity plans to "adopt" a low-income family in Lexington every year, beginning in September. They will help with shopping and work around the home. Several students said they coach neighborhood children in basketball or soccer.
Asked about complaints of litter, David Olson - who shares a house with Wilhite and several other W&L students - pleaded "guilty."
But the students said they periodically clean up, too. And as for complaints about loud music, they said, the neighborhood children cause some of the problem themselves.
"We hear their music, too," said Lee Garlove, of Louisville, Ky.
The permanent residents, meanwhile, say the students are generally polite and not always unwelcome. Nor do all blame the landlords, who buy up houses and rent to students, for trying to make a buck. "I don't blame anybody for trying to do business," said Harris.
Many students named Lexington resident William Stearns as their landlord. Stearns said he owns 14 houses in the neighborhood, 10 of which he rents to students.
Of Stearns, Harris said, "He's a businessman. At the same time, how much is he concerned about this neighborhood? He's reaping the benefits without having any real ties or attachments to the neighborhood."
Stearns said some of the first houses he bought in the area 10 years ago were brought to his attention by area residents. The houses, he said, were empty and either condemned or about to be.
"It was completely substandard housing," he said.
Stearns said he had to charge enough in rent to pay for the improvements he made, which put the price out of reach for some families.
On the other hand, Stearns said, he rents four of the houses to low-income families, and not students.
Stearns also said he has built parking lots to help ease the parking problem. And as for student-caused noise and litter problems, he said, the city can ease them by enforcing ordinances.
In any case, Stearns said, he has no plans to purchase more homes in the area, and knows of no one else who plans to, either. He said the students' taste in housing appears to be changing.
"I think the preference of many students now is to go into the county," Stearns said.
by CNB