Isaiah Cubit

Focus: Finding the process and reason for the houses around Aggieville being torn down.

Living in off-campus housing has many benefits, privacy, more freedom, and responsibility. But for some students around Manhattan, the home that they live in over the school year is getting torn down very suddenly. Nicole and Gabriele Pisterzi both lived at 1226 Vattier street for almost two and a half years, with four other people, before they got a note on their door. Saying that the privately-owned property was being sold and torn down.

One of the sisters, Nicole Pisterzi, a senior at Kansas State University studying human development and family sciences was surprised to see the note, especially after she signed a lease for another year. The current landlord, Todd, told the girls that he would help find them another place. The first place he offered was the 12b apartments owned by Tj, who is the one purchasing the property from Todd. Gabriele, who is also a student at Kansas State University studying psychology, told me that they declined the offer and ended up picking a place on Ratone. Todd wrote a new lease for the place agreed on and then told the girls that they wanted them out by the summer, it is may at this point in time. Tj was very presitant in reminding them when he wanted them to move out by, even though their lease was not up until August.

Shortly after the new lease was signed, the girls are still living at 1226 Vattier when construction outside of the home had begun. Nicole tells me that construction crews were "...blocking the road..." to measure soil for the base of the new apartments that were going to go in place of their current home. She also tells me that their vehicles would be blocking their roommates' cars in, making it so they cannot leave their home. When Todd was contacted he was not aware that work would start on the property that soon.

To avoid hassle, the household moved out before their lease was up into the place on Ratone. This place was a little smaller than the old one but much nicer for a cheaper price, Gabriele explained to me. She even says that their deposit carried over from the other place to their new one. Seems that their troubles were over after they got all moved in. Tj even had a couple movers come and help transfer their belonging to the new place.

August 30th overnight storms came through Manhattan and left around four to five inches of rain, flooding Aggieville and flooding the basement of their new home.

After that rain there was standing water in the basement, soaking the carpet. Carpet which belonged in the bedroom of Nicole he says, " he didn't tell us the new place was going to flood."

Nicole then tells me that the storm flooded the backyard and the sump pump was not working, which had water coming through the window in her room like a waterfall. She alerted the landlord as soon as she could, and he had the carpets in the basement cleaned.

I asked the sisters what they knew about them trying to build new homes around Aggieville. Gabriele says, " I don't like the idea of them extending Aggiveville because I like how small it is and it takes away houses from students."

Nicole says, " I know they are trying to bring mostly bars into the neighborhoods." she goes on to say, " I understand trying to expand but bringing that into neighborhoods where families are is not a good idea."

To get more information about what is happening to Aggieville and the homes around it, I talked to Zach Perez. Zach is a sophomore studying Journalism and Mass Communication, and is also the Student Director of Off-Campus Housing at Kansas State. "I make sure students know their rights as tenants," Zach says.

The most common issue he deals with is getting security deposits back from landlords that are withholding them. The service to help Kansas State students with home renting issues are completely free.

I asked Zach what the reason is the houses are being torn down. He gave me information about the Manhattan community update that started in 2015. The update can consist of adding parking garages, apartments, and even turning Moro street into a walkway. Zach then went into detail about how the people that are doing this community update are going around to landlords and looking at their properties looking for any reason to buy the land from them. If their property is damaged, has mold, or is just so out of date the no one will live there.

When properties are targeted there are usually not tenants at the property. But there are a few cases where students are living in homes that are completely out of date. Zach tells me that is because in 2017 landlords, in the state of Kansas, lobbied to not do mandatory inspections before a tenant moves in. These inspections can still be requested by the tenant free of cost. But if the inspector finds something that needs to be fixed it could cost the landlord. He adds that if the landlord does come in and do the update it will not affect the tenants' rent because of the lease signed for the amount agreed upon by both the tenant and the landlord.

I mentioned this information to the Pisterzi sisters and they found it very helpful and may even use it in the future. And when asked about the experience as a while Gabriele says, " it was just really inconvenient."