If it gets passed, Pennsylvania House Bill 809 sponsored by State Representative Susan Helm of Dauphin and Lebanon Counties would prevent local municipalities from regulating student housing.

This state is home to over 200 colleges and universities including West Chester University and Penn State. Up until now, local communities decided how to regulate renting to students through municipal zoning ordinances which can restrict students from moving into local residences off campus.

The bill states that “no ordinance enacted by a municipality shall prohibit the occupation of a dwelling unit based on…the individual’s matriculation status”, matriculation is defined later in the bill as “the state of being enrolled in a postsecondary educational institution”.

Under the “Student Home Ordinance”, the Borough of West Chester zones for student housing, restricting landowners and protecting homeowners from rowdy neighbors.

If 809 is enacted into law, municipalities will maintain their usual authority to enact and enforce rules to regulate parking, noise levels, health and safety concerns and code violations.

House Bill 809 was a subject of the Pennsylvania House of Representative’s Local Government Committee’s meeting in West Chester where they listened to both sides of the community’s concerns over the potential impact of this change.

“Our goal is to end the possibility of there being any discrimination against students when they are looking for a place to live while attending classes in college communities across the Commonwealth,” explained Representative Susan Helm. “Students should not be discriminated against simply because they are students. Many of them are veterans or married and are good neighbors that do not cause problems.”

It was clear that most of the potentially affected residents, while sympathetic to the problems some students might be having in finding housing, did not want their neighborhoods turned into hosts for frat houses.

Some of the issues that tend to occur include late-night noise, increased traffic, illegal parking, litter, and an increased rate of, mostly minor, crime that reduces the quality of life for nearby residents. If the bill gets passed many residents fear that student residences could start popping up with little or no restrictions.

While some landlords try to downplay the crime issue, West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta brought out the numbers. She compared the single-family residential area west of the university, for the first half of the year, where police received 61 calls with the student-rental neighborhood east of the university, where police were called 1,111 times over the same period, she said.

“In the most dense student neighborhoods, I would certainly suggest that the density of student rentals and the amount of crimes that occur are directly correlated,” West Chester Councilman Jordan Norley added.