Eastern Michigan University’s Student Government sponsored the Off-Campus Housing Fair on Thursday as part of EMU’s Safety Week. The event was held at the Student Center on campus and was designed to help students talk to different leasing professionals around Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor about the security they provide to their tenants.
The multiple complexes at the fair included off-campus apartment complexes like River Drive Apartments, Lakeshore, Westland, Riverrain, University Green, Peninsular Place and Ridgewood Apartments. Also represented at the fair was EMU’s on campus housing.
The Student Government at EMU produced a safety checklist for each of the complexes for students to use as a guideline when gauging a complex’s security.
Listed on the checklist were items ranging from whether staff members are required to receive criminal background checks to the placement of security cameras around the apartment’s vicinity.
SG’s Director of Communications Adam Reid was pleased with the turnout of students at the housing fair event. He also said that the safety checklist will definitely benefit students looking to live off campus.
“The event is a centralized way to find safe accommodations,” Reid said. “Apartments can look at their safety regulations and students can find where the safest locations are.”
Reid said that he wanted the students to be able to stay in the Ypsilanti area, if possible.
EMU student Daryl Shahid said he attended the fair to find affordable off campus housing located conveniently close to campus. Shahid also said he liked the safety checklist because it allowed him to compare all of the apartment complexes in the area.
Leasing specialist for River Drive apartments Kristina Halbrook said that students were eager to find out more information and she wasn’t trying to be a pushy, aggressive salesperson to the students who seemed interested in the possibility of making River Drive their home.
Leasing professional for Westland and EMU student studying communications and business, Michael Gbadamosi, said he was the person who usually gives the extensive tours for the complex, but there were few students who lived in the complex and that the apartment was definitely commuter-based.
One of the most popular tables at the fair was the on-campus apartments booth.
Johanna Swanson, an EMU student majoring in higher education student affairs and also a marketing graduate assistant, was working the on-campus apartments booth.
“You’re looking for off-campus, but there are on-campus options,” Swanson said. “Students can have their own apartments, 24-hour police patrol and all the amenities they need.”
