By Carin Holmes
News Editor
Changes are coming to the way leases are structured at the off-campus housing location DLP Kutztown, also known as The Edge.
According to an email sent to tenants by DLP Kutztown on Dec. 13, 2021, The Edge is changing the way they lease apartments from leasing each individual bedroom to renting out the whole apartment on one lease. In addition to this change, they will also be charging a monthly $60 USD utility fee as well as a monthly fee to rent furniture, when both were originally included in the cost of rent. Furniture can be purchased from DLP Kutztown for $500 USD.
Credit: Emily Kline
The new monthly rent at DLP Kutztown is now $1,402 USD per month for a two bedroom apartment, $1,530 USD per month for a downstairs three-bedroom apartment and $1,611 USD for an upstairs three-bedroom apartment, not including the cost of utilities and furniture.
“We’re very frustrated,” said Taylor Philips, a junior at KU, on her and her roommates’ experience since the announcement of the change. Philips said that this change would increase how much she needs to pay each month in an apartment for three people by nearly $75 USD.
The change in lease structure was made to allow residents to run their apartment like a home rather than a dorm room, said DLP Senior Vice President Amy Barricelli. Barricelli said that other off-campus housing locations in Kutztown are not leased out by bed, and that CoStar, which they use to find averages in the marketplace, showed that the property had not been “maximizing its potential.”
In addition to the changes to the leases, Philips said that unorganized management has also been a source of frustration saying, “I’m hearing five different things from five different people.”
Barricelli said that frustration regarding communication issues was not a surprise to her. She said that the team that works there is made up of many former KU students who know how things were previously run. She believed the communication issues had been resolved, but that it may be their biggest hurdle so far.