Do you know who owns your home? Do you know how much it’s worth?
A lot of people who live near Main Campus couldn’t answer those questions. So, The Temple News dedicated a staff-wide longform story to find out.
The Temple News found that property owners who own homes near Main Campus primarily live in Philadelphia and neighboring suburbs. We also found that property owners hail from 37 different states, which does not include two owned by people in Puerto Rico and one in Toronto. Other top property owners live in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Florida and California.
People from all over the country are coming to this area to get a piece of the development boom brought on by the increasing student population.
In Temple University’s master plan, it says it’s committed to developing and replacing on-campus housing to meet future demand. But the university has been paying little attention to the demand for more housing.
When there isn’t enough on-campus housing to meet the needs of the student body, more students live off campus, which comes along with an increase in trash and changes the quality of life and property values for long-time residents. We’re glad Temple’s stepped up in the creation of the North Central Special Services District to help minimize these issues, but it’s a reactionary measure.
We can’t stop property owners from investing in this area’s housing market, but the university can make concrete plans to increase the amount of on-campus student housing — and fast. Small changes, like block clean-ups, aren’t enough anymore.
By making more students able to live on campus affordably, the university can be a better neighbor and mitigate at least some of the student-related problems off campus.
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