The University of Washington's
Office of Off-Campus Housing Affairs

Welcome Welcome

January 17, 2012

Head for the hills!! Actually, head for somewhere with a fireplace. It's going to be a cold, nasty storm in Seattle...or so they say.

January 12, 2012

Publicola put out another article about landlord-tenant issues in Seattle. It's worth a look. This is good publicity to highlight the ongoing (and seemingly worsening) tenancy issues existing in this city. It is important for our UW community to be aware of these, especially student tenants. OCHA is working closely with the ASUW Office of Government Relations, as well as the North of 45th committee to develop programs to educate more students about their rights and responsibilities as tenants. There are numerous other resources in the city, however, and students should be aware of those as well. In essence, we are here to help! If you think you might be the victim of substandard housing or landlord abuse, please visit us during office hours or make and appointment. Plus, we just get lonely in this office ;-)

Have a wonderful extended weekend. And consider the MLK day of service. Go volunteer at something! Or just pick up litter you see along your walk. Make an effort.

January 3, 2012

Hey everyone, we're back! Hope you enjoyed your holiday. OCHA is officially open for the Winter Quarter. Pretty soon we'll be rolling out our new and improved website! Be looking for that in the near future (probably a week or so). We will be hosting yet another workshop this month; our First Time Leasing class, for landlords. Please click the link and register soon for this event if you are an up and coming property manager who is interested in opening your door to students, faculty, and staff of the UW.

More updates to follow soon. In the meantime, stop by and see us!
Brett

December 19, 2011

Happy Winter Break all! OCHA office is now closed until January 3rd. We should have an official schedule before that date so you will know when the office will be open during Winter Quarter. Until then, feel free to email me at ochadr@uw.edu to make an appointment if you have a pressing issue (like finding a place to live before January 3rd!!) or any landlord concerns you might have. Currently there are about 70 listings on the website, which is to be expected as some people are coming and others going during the quarter transition. This is a great opportunity to find a place, so don't stress!

Speaking of stress, if any of you are having a serious problem with your housing or your landlord, it's important you come talk to us or contact the Tenants' Union of Seattle. I wanted to share an article written earlier this month in Publicola about how the rental inspection policy has seen some changes to its language recently which will impact the effect of its intended purpose. I urge you to read this and offer us your own personal stories if you have one you would like to share which has involved a problem in the past with a landlord and how you resolved it. OCHA will be working with the office of Government Relations in the near future to help lobby against these changes to the inspection policy, and we would like your help in that!

In January, we will be sending out a campus-wide survey to all students, faculty, and staff regarding some housing questions. We did this last year to get some demographics, and this year we have teamed up with the North of 45th Committee to get a little more feedback this time. I hope all of you eligible will take the time to fill it out for us. There are prizes too (UW gift cards) so it's definitely worth your time!

Well I hope you all enjoy the rest of your break, spread some holiday cheer, and come back ready to rock Winter Quarter! We all know it's the worst quarter of the year, and yet we always get through it.

Happy Holidays!
Brett C.

December 5, 2011

Hey everyone! Sorry for the MIA, but we students have been super busy with projects and tests and studying and NOT sleeping. Fun for all, right?! Well we are about to wrap up the quarter so it's important to note a few upcoming changes to the office schedule. This is our last week in the office before final exam week and winter break. The office was closed today (Monday) and will also be closed Tuesday. We do apologize for the inconvenience; but we'll be back in the office Wednesday through Friday to tie up any loose ends and also help out anyone needing to find housing for the break or who just have questions in general. Winter Quarter hours will go up on the website the first week we are back (so January 3rd).

I will be in the office for around 10 hours total during the break (probably more knowing me)to work on some planning initiatives and budgety stuff. So, should you need to meet with me during the break (whether you are a landlord or student) you can email and I will set aside some time for you to stop by. Most of the break, however, I will still be checking email, etc. from home when not in the office, so just know that I will/should be able to respond to any inquiries during that time.

Lastly, we have some great events and workshops coming up for Winter Quarter, so be sure to visit the website around first of the year to see what's coming. I will have an update in between now and then at some point. AND, if all is still on schedule, we should have a face lift very shortly thanks to our friends at UW Creative. Look for that soon!

Brett C.

November 10, 2011

For those landlords still interested in talking with us about good advertising to student tenants, our workshop, Strategic Leasing will be running on the night of the 16th (next Wednesday) and there's still plenty of space available.

Also coming up at the end of this month will be an OCHA informational session which will coincide with the Resident Hall Student Association's International Week; this week long event will take place in multiple residence halls and we will be at a yet-to-be-determined location on campus during this event. So stop by and learn some things about moving in to a new place off-campus! More details (date and time) to come soon.

Brett

November 2, 2011

Happy mid-term, Huskies! Hope the tests are treating you all well. We are just getting past the roughest part of the quarter, it's all downhill from here, right?!

I know some of you might have started thinking about moving off-campus at some point, either now, or later in the year, or perhaps next summer. Well, we want to be there when you are ready to start the process of finding a place to live, as well as educate you about things you need to know to start properly planning. One event we got coming up will take place in the residence halls soon. We are working with RHSA to provide some information on getting started so that you are fully aware of your options and answer any questions you may have. If you don't live in the residence halls, we'll be happy to meet with you 1-on-1 to discuss matters of housing. Just give us a call or email one of us in the office to set a time to meet; or stop in during our office hours. It's that easy! We want to meet any of you who are even mulling the thought of moving in your head. It's a difficult and rather big decision to make, and should not be done lightly.

Okay, enough seriousness, go attack those midterms, and remember to relax afterwards!!
Brett

October 25, 2011

Hi folks! It was recently brought to my attention that our email address for tech issues was not getting forwarded to us, so I have changed the email (which is now defunct) to the assistant director email. If you have tech issues in the future, you will now actually be reaching someone instead of your message going into a dark void. I apologize for this issue.

The landlord survey has closed! I want to thank you again for taking the time to give us some solid feedback on our services.

Everyone have a safe and happy Halloween this weekend!
Brett

October 17, 2011

Workshops for Autumn Quarter are now up on the menu bar! There are links to both the renter's workshop and the landlord's workshop. Please let me know if you have any difficulties accessing the ExCo website via the links or if you have general questions about signing up. Hope to see you there!

Also, LANDLORDS please note that the interest survey will close this Friday, October 21st!! So please be sure to fill it out before then. Your feedback is really important to us!

BC

October 11, 2011

Week two is underway on the UW campus. I can already tell it's going to be a fast quarter. For those of you landlords who use our services, but have not yet taken our interest survey, please do so as soon as possible. We would like to have as much feedback as there are landlords using our services. The link to the catalyst survey can be found here. Please take this survey ONLY if you are a landlord. You do not need to take this if you are a student, faculty, or staff member of the UW. We will close the survey on the 21st of this month, so it's very important that you fill it out prior to that date.

Thanks so much for your support and we look forward to reading through your feedback soon!

Director B

September 28, 2011

Happy first day of school, Huskies!!

And what a gorgeous day to kick it off right. Of course, September is almost over, so I'm not holding my breath. For those of you new to this area, I hope you have invested in a rain jacket of some sort. It's coming.

Dawg Daze events were great, and I'm glad I got a chance to meet some of the new freshmen (and in one case, a group of juniors!) who are thinking of living off campus next year. One of our big goals for OCHA this year is to reach out to as many students on the campus as possible. Whether you are freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, grad, transfer, international, or visiting, faculty or staff, we want to meet you and offer our services. Therefore, we have some great programming that Megan and I will put into motion very soon. So get excited! Also, please notice our updated office hours for the Autumn Quarter. If those times do not work for you, we've left a few "closed door" hours in which you can make an appointment to visit with us. We will be flexible to accomodate your needs.

LANDLORDS: Your moment to shine is coming up! This week I will send out a survey to get your input as important stakeholders of our office's service and programs. You will need to sign up for our newsletter email list in order to receive this survey, so if you haven't done so already, please click here to sign up.

That's all for now folks, I'll be back really soon with updates, I promise!
Brett

September 23, 2011

QUICK UPDATE: The search engine works once again! Many thanks to my wonderful tech crew on the 4th floor of Condon for making this possible. Please feel free to search for housing once again. And I thank you for your patience during this quick fix.

Brett

September 21, 2011

As the OCHA staff continue with ASUW training this week, I wanted to let you all know that we are aware of the website issues that have been occuring over the last few days. Apparently the search engine is now having some problems, though the site itself is now accessible. We are working on fixing this problem as soon as possible.

Please note that we have some Dawg Daze events listed in the banner above. If you are new to the UW and will be around this weekend for the festivities, please consider stopping by one of our 4 info sessions. We will be making a short presentation and then taking any questions you have about housing. Hope to see you there!

Brett

September 13, 2011

Just a quick note to let you all know of some last minute schedule changes. The office will be CLOSED on Thursday (Sept. 15) since both staff members have committments which are unfortunate. Really, they are the two worst things anyone could ever be involved in...packing/moving, and jury duty. Honestly, I'd prefer a dentist appointment.

We will also be closed Sept. 20th-22nd next week for ASUW orientation. As this function is also mandatory (sorry!) we will not be around in the office; so if you were planning to visit later this week or next, please call or email us and we'll arrange a time to meet with you. We are both in the office on Mondays and Fridays without office hours, so please feel free to make an appointment with us on either of those days next week! In the meantime, I hope everyone out there looking for housing is being successful in their searches, and we'll be standing by if there are roadblocks.

Cheers, to one crazy September!

See you real soon
Brett C.

September 8, 2011

We're back!

The OCHA office is in high gear for the month of September, and we are preparing for all the wonderful activities which are forthcoming in the next few weeks. Most important are our info. sessions for Dawg Daze, which will be taking place Sept. 23-27 (times to be announced soon!). If you are a student, either new or returning, and you are thinking about moving into an independent living situation (such as a house or apartment) it's important that you attend one of these sessions to learn some basic information prior to taking that big step into the real world (well, somewhat)!

Our office has expanded open office hours on Tues/Wed/Thurs to accomodate the increasing interest in off-campus living. The student visits have been filled with mass amounts of questions, and we've been happy to answer them! Hopefully this increase in hours will allow more flexibility to those visiting with limited schedules. As we are a staff of two now, it's become much easier to answer everyone's inquiries.

Look for another update next week on the fun stuff ahead!

Brett

August 23, 2011

First off, a BIG OCHA welcome to Megan Kaase! She started her position yesterday (Monday) as our new Assistant Director. I am looking forward to working on many projects throughout the year with Megan as she has a lot of great ideas already and a ton of ambition. She will be a great asset to the office.

I just want to remind all our visitors that the office will be CLOSED from August 24th - September 6th. Those of you students who are still on the hunt for housing in Seattle (or will be attempting it soon), please e-mail either me or Megan at ochadr@uw.edu OR ochaad@uw.edu with any questions you have.

Those of you landlords concerned about putting up a listing, please know that I will continue to monitor the incoming posts remotely and approving them as needed. One way or another, we are determined to respond to everyone's inquiries and concerns during our short break from the office.

I remain humbly,

Director Brett

August 17, 2011

It's been a while folks since I last blogged from the bright office of OCHA! I apologize for the absence.

I wanted to help out some landlords who recently have been having difficulty posting pictures on their listings. Unfortunately, for the next few months it will continue to be difficult until we make our big leap forward with the new website (fingers crossed on the timing!). So below I have listed the steps you need to take to get the picture up on your listing.

Step 1. You will need to post your picture on a public photo website, such as picasa , photobucket , or flickr . Our security prevents you from uploading a photo directly from your harddrive.

Step 2. Once loaded to the photo site, you need to right click on the photo and select "copy image URL."

Step 3. Almost there! The last step is to login into your account, pull up your listing, and paste what you just copied into the field asking for the image address (this is on tab 5 when you are editing your listing). It is important to note that your image url address must be in 'jpg' format or it will not work correctly. Don't ask me why, I didn't invent computers.

Hopefully these steps will help you get to your goal of having a nice, inviting picture to accompany your perfect listing! You should always let me know if you are having problems, by either emailing or calling the office.

I also have one announcement to make that will slightly affect the operations of OCHA over the next coulple weeks. I will be taking two weeks off starting August 23rd to go visit family in another part of the world (aka Indiana). Therefore, I will not be in the office at all, obviously. I am, however, one of those people who never stops working, so I will have access to my email the whole time I'm gone. If you need something answered in a fairly quick amount of time, please use the email function of your phone, and not the calling function. I will respond as soon as I can. Aside from email, I will still be approving listings (as it's something I can do remotely), so please keep them coming!

Students: The same goes for you all, if you have questions or want to make an appointment for when I'm back, please EMAIL! I will be happy to help you as much as I can while out of the office.

See you after Labor Day!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.
Brett

August 1, 2011

Happy August! Looks like GORGEOUS weather for Seattle this week. Any students coming to visit the area to look for housing this week are lucky! That said, I would like to make you all aware of a change in my office hours this week. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will not be in the office. So I have tacked on a few hours Wednesday, changing them from 12-2 to 12-5. If you will be in the area, stop by! Of course, I'm in the office 5 days a week, so really you can just give me a call or e-mail if you want to arrange an appointment and I will set it up.

Tune in next time, when I may actually have yellow tomatoes to report growing on my outside ledge! A fellow co-worker managed to save my tomato plant from certain doom (at least from the looks of it last week) and it's now actually growing tomatoes like it's supposed to. Who knew?

Director B

July 27, 2011

I have been seeing quite a few students during my office hours this week. It must almost be August! I would love to have many more listings available to these students who are looking for housing. Landlords, get your places up on our database! It's easy!

Speaking of LANDLORDS (and any students interested in renting out property), we have just TWO more sections of First Time Leasing and Strategic Leasing left, so make sure to sign up at exco.org (also very easy). I'll be putting up some flyers at the UW Bookstore regarding the workshops as well.

Speaking of UW Bookstore, did you landlords know that OCHA has a bulletin board right INSIDE the store? That's right, and we just love putting up landlord flyers so the thousands of students walking through there each week are potentially checking these flyers out. Did I also mention that it's a mere $10 for an entire month of board space at the bookstore?! That's crazy cheap advertising in a store with thousands of student shoppers. Think about it. We have a little purple box outside our office. Feel free to drop in your flyer along with payment (made out to UW of course) and we'll get it up there for you! This is probably the most strategic time to be displaying a flyer. We all know August and September are hot months for finding housing among the student community.

Til next time,

BC

July 20, 2011

The whole country is heating up this week! It seems everywhere states are reporting temperatures in the 90s and some with heat indices of over 100! Everywhere...except for the Pacific Northwest of course. I recently read an article which stated that our little area of the world has experienced approximately 78 minutes of weather rising above the 80 degree mark. 78 minutes. It probably happened while I was at the movies, because I certainly haven't felt that warm yet. August, don't let us down!

I know a great way to beat the "heat" here in Seattle. Why not come to a workshop and learn some landlord skills? We have one occuring tonight (7/20) at 7 p.m., called "Strategic Leasing." If you miss tonight's episode, no worries. I'm running two more in the future, on the 3rd and 17th of August.

Next week I will host the first of our "First Time Leasing" class series. Another of this class will be held on August 10th. You don't want to miss out on these great opportunities to meet with Off-Campus Housing and gain some insight into the student housing market, and meet me!

Flyers are still going up around the city; it's been a bit of a slow process, but a fun one! I love traversing around Seattle and visiting the great neighborhoods we have here. I always tell students to strongly consider living outside the U-district and think about a place in these neighborhoods that have such character. If you are a landlord with such a place, we would love to have you post it on our listing site if it's available. Stop by our website sometime, or better yet visit me in the office (Condon 218) and we'll chat.

Signing off for now,

Director BC

July 12, 2011

Friends of housing,

The city of Seattle (and all of King county) is at risk of a large reduction in service from the King County Metro bus system. Currently, the organization must choose between making these cuts to reduce their yearly budget outlays or institute a vehicle congestion charge of $20, to be applied to each vehicle registered in the county. These two options will be discussed and debated at the King County Council special meetings. There are two remaining meetings; one is TONIGHT at the King County Courthouse downtown and the other will be at the Burien City Council Chambers on July 21st. If you use the bus system please consider attending this meeting to show your support. As a student organization, ASUW advocates for student interests and therefore this decision of the King County Council is of utmost importance to us, as a large portion of our student body relies on buses to get to and from the UW campus. For more information on this matter, please visit the King County Metro page.

I am planning to put up more flyers around the city. If you are a landlord and know of some good areas in your neighborhood, I would love to hear your suggestions. Please e-mail me at ochadr@uw.edu with that information.

Sincerely,

Director Brett

July 7, 2011

Our open office hours have been busy! Students have been stopping by to ask questions, get advice, and narrow their search for that perfect place to live. If you are a student, either visiting for a few days in the summer or just planning to move to a different place in Seattle, you need to come by and see us. We have free candy, so it will be worth your time.

Landlord flyers are going up around Seattle area neighborhoods. As this is a one man operation (i.e. ME), the process is slow going, but we'll get there! Many local businesses have been very generous in allowing space on their community boards or windows, and we are extremely grateful for their hospitality. If you are a landlord and you see one of these flyers, please shoot me an email and let me know at ochadr@uw.edu. Also let me know if you are interested in being on our mailing list. We plan to send out quarterly newsletters during the school year for interseted members of our OCHA housing community.

One more shout out to our workshops, the first one which is coming up next week!! First Time Leasing: a guide for landlords which will get those individuals started on the right track with the information you need to be a knowledgable property manager. Strategic Leasing: this class will emphasize attracting the wandering student who is in need to good, safe, and affordable housing. Both workshops are offered throughout July and August, so there's plenty of space available.

I hope everyone is having a great summer otherwise. I am holding office hours Tues/Wed/Thurs and would love to meet many more of you (landlord or student), so drop on by and say hi! Trust me, the candy alone is worth the visit.

Your Fearless Director,
Brett C.

Happy Summer to All!

July 1, 2011

We are about 10 days into the season and summer is just starting to show its pretty face. Typical Seattle summer, always shy.

July 1st carries with it some big changes for our office. First, Director Joe Salama finished his position with OCHA yesterday. He brought many great initiatives to our office and during his year as director paved the way for much needed improvements for OCHA. We wish him the best in his new position with ASUW as the Finance and Budget Director for next year.

I (Brett Carnahan) have taken the position of Director of OCHA, and am thoroughly excited about the opportunities to advertise our services and programming and expand our constituency to serve as many UW students, faculty and staff as we possibly can. I'm also anticipating the opportunity to reach out to a wider landlord base in the Seattle area. If you are interested in providing housing to our UW population, we want YOU!

Aside from a change in personnel, we also will soon be entering the initial phases of our website "reboot." We've received a lot of feedback over the last many months about some user issues in regard to posting on our listing search (among other things), and we realize that it's time for a big change. Therefore, OCHA will be working with the UW to design a website which will create a completely new user experience, making it easier in terms of navigation and overall look of the website. The new site will rollout sometime later this year, most likely around Fall Quarter.

This summer OCHA will once again be hosting a few workshops. The first is a brand new workshop called "First Time Leasing." This class is designed for anyone who owns property and has been thinking about renting it out, but lacks any knowledge of the process. The class will cover important items from the Washington State Landlord-Tenant Act, discuss tenant issues, and even talk about the new upcoming Rental Inspection/Licensing Program which will affect ALL Seattle area landlords who wish to rent property by next year. This is some vital information that we can help you better understand if you are new to the business of leasing. Sign up via the Experimental College here.

The second workshop is a repeat of our successful "Strategic Leasing" which is geared towards landlords to help them advertise their properties. If you are struggling with a good marketing strategy, sign up today via ExCo here .

Lastly, I want to let all of you (both landlords and tenants) know that I will be in my office this summer, with new hours posted on the website (just to the right of this post). Though my hours are limited in the summer (silly UW summer classes!), feel free to contact me with a request for an appointment and I will be more than happy to accommodate your schedule.

Sincerely,
Brett Carnahan, Director

Cedar and Poplar Hall - Is it worth the expense?

April 9th, 2011
by Joseph Salama
Director of Off-Campus Housing Affairs with ASUW

This weekend I had the privilege of viewing the new residence halls, Popular Hall and Cedar Hall, on behalf of the office. I thought I would share my experiences, thoughts, and concerns with all of you.

Housing and Food Services (HFS) is taking a bold new direction in these halls, moving toward a village style of living which seeks to emulate the living situations in the University District. As just one example of this change in direction, the first two floors of each building are meeting halls, food services and general public open areas with limited access to the living floors. One does not have to go far to see how this is much like the nearby housing structures - just across the street Guanaco's Tacos sits below an apartment complex. While this means no more late night "going to get cereal in your pjs", it does set the bar higher for resident conduct in the residence halls, prompting students to behave as though they were not in a dormitory but in a community residential building. Another example is shying away from building massive halls like Terry and Lander or even McMahon which seeks to be a comprehensive living environment to a series of separate halls which together function as a whole. By distributing the amenities, such as a fitness center and a grocery store between four structures which would have been traditionally located in one building supports a co-dependence of buildings, integrating a "village" feel into this side of the campus. This attitude moves to the rooms themselves with private bathrooms, windows that open (a feature sorely missed on warmer days in Terry Hall and Lander Hall) and a kitchen.

The Pricing

Expensive, there is no doubt about it. For Poplar Hall you are look at $2,535 a quarter, up from the average $1680 and Cedar Hall is between $979 - $1011. At approximately $1,000 per month ($2,535/10= $253 per week, then multiple by 4 weeks to get a month) in addition to the food plan (Note: Cedar does not require a food plan), you are spending significantly more money per day than you would off-campus. The average pricing per bed in the University District (based on data compiled by our office) is between $550 - $750, though you will easily find option $100 in each direction. Considering that two people are sharing a room here, $2,000 is being spent per month for a space that is valued at $550 - $1500.

Essentially it is just a question of value - is it worth the extra $500 to $1450 to live in these spaces or are you better off living in an apartment?

The Value

I regularly spend free office hours looking over our office's housing database and condominium values for the Seattle area. Given the overall quality and age of the inventory of greater Seattle area and of the University District specifically, the proximity of these halls to campus, the number and quality of amenities provided, and features included into the monthly rent (electricity, water, sewage, garbage, internet, on-site staffing, and building amenities), I am compelled to say these units are competitively priced and are at market value. Cedar is a better value than Poplar given the extra space, the kitchen, and optional meal plan however even Poplar Hall is a comparable deal. Additionally, living on campus gives two intangible benefits - peace of mind and community. Parents (out of state parents especially) appreciate knowing their children are in the hands of the University of Washington and the safety that comes along with that environment. From my experiences here in the office, student living off-campus is unfortunately a mine field of experiences. With the residence halls you know exactly what situation you are entering into. As for community, you will never find an opportunity like this again unless you decide to live in a commune or a collective (both are viable options for young adults, OCHA has more options on those as well) and is something you do not recognize until you lose it. Poplar Hall is teaming up with the College of Environment to provide a sustainable living community; you will never see a university team at these levels. The extra money you spend to live in these halls go toward supporting those options - if you are going to use them it is definitely worth the expense.

How do they compare to off-campus options?

I feel as though much of this article is just another listing on our website, however, what is innovational here is that is the residence halls. While we have seen this done before with Commodore Duchess and Steven's Court, this is a move toward consolidating the best of both options - the independence of Steven's Court with the city feel of Commodore Duchess - and creating a village-like package for the average student who is still looking for the residence hall community. From the perspective as both a student and the Director of Off-Campus Housing Affairs, these options are not comparable to off-campus housing options because it is comparable apples to oranges. Living off-campus is about creating your own community in a space of your choosing that is provided by a landlord. Living on-campus is about engaging within the expansive community established by the university and less about the spaces in which you live in.

Final Thoughts

I love everything that comes from living off-campus. I love the independence of living alone, I love having the responsibility of bills, I love buying my own groceries. Even when I was on campus I lived in Steven's Court. This is the life I have always wanted and I leapt right into it. Other individuals thrive on community involvement, engaging peers in a living environment, and living out every experience with their cohorts. For you, the current residential halls are for you. If you are in between, seeking the independence of your own environment while engaging in peer community living, these new halls are for you. Look at your priorities and what you are seeking to get out of your college experiences and make an informed decision on your environment. Off-Campus Housing Affairs will be here when you are ready to move on, but before you launch into living off-campus, take closer look at Poplar and Cedar Halls.

Joseph Salama

March 28th, 2011

Spring Quarter Update
Hello everyone! As spring quarter starts rolling around, our office begisn to see the start primary rush of available housing lists, a rush which lasts all the way through the summer till October 1st of every year. The office is thrilled to connect thousands of landlords with thousands of students every year. Below are some of the ways we are tackling the housing market this quarter.

The Spring Housing Fair

On April 27th our office will be hosting our Spring Housing Fair. Essentially it will be a representive collection of regional property managers & landlords, non-profit organizations, and other housing entities to table on Red Square in an unified fashion, answering student questions regarding housing and providing information on available housing opportunities for next year. Landlords, this is an opportunity to table on Red Square, the central plaza of campus, on the busiest time of the day on the busiest day of the week and speak with students one-on-one about your property. Students, this is a prime opportunity to find safe and affordable housing for the upcoming academic year in a no stress environment. Our staff will be present throughout the fair to answer any questions you have immediately.
For details and information on how to register please read our Invitation Letter.

Updated Link to Vendor Contract

For a copy of the vendor contract to register a table, please fill out our Vendor Contract.

Strategic Leasing; A Workshop for Landlords

Interested in reaching out to the student rental housing market? In this workshop we will teach you how to successful market your rental property to students, including what students look for in a listing, regional prices and vacancy rates, effective campus marketing techniques, tips & tricks, and more. Course fee includes a yearly subscription to our internet newsletter.

For times and to register please our visit Class Listing on the Experimental College website.

Director Joseph Salama

January 12th, 2010

Winter Quarter Update
Hello everyone! Our office is proud to host two workshop series this quarter, one for tenants and one for landlords; read below for details!
Strategtic Leasing; A Workshop for Landlords.

Interested in reaching out to the student rental housing market? In this workshop we will teach you how to successful market your rental property to students, including what students look for in a listing, regional prices and vacancy rates, effective campus marketing techniques, tips & tricks, and more. Course fee includes a yearly subscription to our internet newsletter.
For times and to register: Visit http://depts.washington.edu/asuwxpcl//courses/view/11WI.17.0117

Smart Renting; A Workshop for First-Time Renters

Renting for the first time can be an overwhelming task – contracts, deposits, fees, utilities, commuting, neighborhoods, ordinances, tenant obligations, the list goes on. In this class we will cover everything a first-time renter needs to know before moving off-campus, including techniques and checklists to approach larger challenges such as finding the right neighborhood for you.
For times and to register: Visit http://depts.washington.edu/asuwxpcl//courses/view/11WI.17.0116

Director Joseph Salama

Novemeber 2nd, 2010

Mid-Quarter Update

Hello everyone! First and foremost, a warm welcome to the new Assistant Director Brett Carnahan! He will run and oversee the daily operations and special projects - if you have any questions or ideas, let him know!

Off-Campus Housing Affairs has collaborated with the Office of the (ASUW) Vice President to bring about a NEW volunteer opportunity with our office - the Husky Housing Pack. The Pack will assist the office publicizing the office's mission through a vast array of methods, including canvassing, documenting neighborhoods, and bringing workshops to the home. In addition, you are offered the opportunity to create your own projects. To read more about the program and its requirements, please read the Husky Housing Pack Outline or contact the Director at ochadr@uw.edu .

Director Joseph Salama

September 29th, 2010

Fall Update

Hello students, faculty, staff, landlords, and the general public! Dawg Daze has come and gone and Fall quarter is finally upon us all! If you still have not found housing and desperately searching for a place for this academic quarter, call for an appointment with our office and we will address your needs personally. If someone is not able to reach you via phone, just drop by afternoons between 2:00 and 5:00 and we will get you help quickly.

After months of content and design re-haul, the Husky Housing Handbook "Moving In, Moving Out" is available online! The office would like to thank Brenna Marketello, Christina Coop, and Prof. Karen Cheng for all the hours of long work and dedication over the last three to four months. The guide will be printed and available for pick up at various distribution centers around campus, primarily our office in Condon Hall, room 218

Last, but not least, new fall office hours are now in effect for the Fall quarter. Please refer to hours.asuw.org in the coming days for more details regarding what those hours are precisely.

Director Joseph Salama

July 2nd, 2010

Reopening!

Hello students, faculty, staff, landlords, and the general public! The Office of Off-Campus Housing Affairs officially reopened today in its new location, Condon Hall, Room 218. Located in the Husky Union Building for over 30 years, OCHA has moved for two years while the HUB undergoes an intensive remodeling. However, our services will continue in full strength throughout the coming months. A note regarding summer hours; we are open from 9:00am till 6:00pm, but actually "in-office" time will vary, as there is only one staff member on duty. If you need to meet in person, it is best to call ahead and schedule an appointment. Besides that, enjoy your summer and pay close attention to some of the projects and programs the Office of Off-Campus Housing Affairs has coming your way!

Director Joseph Salama