Syracuse University launches portal for students looking to live off-campus

Syracuse University launched its new student residential accommodation search engine for off-campus housing last December. Currently, top landlords in the area around the university are still deciding if they are okay with the idea or not.

SU launched the tool to “create the best living environment for students,” Joe Personte, director of SU’s Office of Off Campus and Commuter Services, said, and properties listed on the site must be compliant with the city’s housing codes.

But University Hill neighborhood landlords said SU’s housing portal can give students the wrong impression about the safety of the properties listed on the site.

Ben Tupper, who owns Rent From Ben — a housing company that rents about 150 properties to tenants in Syracuse — said he has no plans to list his properties on the portal.

Tupper said an initial proposal of the site in 2016 immediately caused backlash from landlords. Those landlords told SU officials that determining whether a landlord is reputable would take too much work for one person, and it could open SU to legal liability, he said.

Personte said SU is not trying to determine who is a good landlord or label certain properties as safe.

A disclaimer on the portal states that a property being listed on the site does not represent an endorsement by SU or Off Campus Partners — the company running the site — of the landlord, their properties or their business practices.

Off Campus Partners did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Personte said the disclaimer does not mean that SU cannot guarantee a property is safe.

“What we’re saying is that the properties are up to code based on city regulations,” he said. “That’s all we’re saying.”

When asked how the university defined “up to code,” Personte said that definition was up to the city. He wouldn’t say how SU would determine which violations were acceptable.

One of Tupper’s main concerns with the portal was that SU has not said how it will ensure properties that were originally approved to be on the site remain up to code, he said.

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