Emily West and Professor Eugene Cole, Health Sciences

The multi-unit rental dwelling typically presents a variety of health and safety concerns that may result in illness and/or injury. Although any dwelling is susceptible to such problems, rental properties are at a greater risk, typically through lack of routine maintenance and repair on the part of landlords. The student population at Brigham Young University (BYU) is particularly disempowered when it comes to safe housing options. This is due to several factors including a rule instituted by the university that all students living off-campus must live in housing that has been approved by the BYU Office of Off-campus Housing. The effect of this rule is that landlords whose rental units are approved are almost guaranteed to have tenants due to limited number of approved housing units compared to students. Unfortunately, the approval process does not include measures for environmental health and safety but rather focuses on assuring that the rental unit provides the student with a closet, dresser, and other necessary furniture and appliances in the home. Landlords, therefore, do not have a monetary incentive for spending money on fixing certain aspects of their housing units since approval can be gained without the additional cost of care, and tenants are practically guaranteed.

This information, in conjunction with an increase of complaints to the Office of BYU-Approved, Off-campus Housing led to a needs assessment that graduate student, Erin Johnson and assistant, Emily West, conducted in the Spring of 2006 to determine the extent to which environmental health and safety problems exist in student housing. Over 2,000 students from Brigham Young University were surveyed and the results revealed a high number of students living under adverse health conditions. Results also confirmed that landlords had a low response rate when improvement requests were made and a high percentage of students responded that they were unsatisfied with their landlords.

My main task was to develop an intervention aimed at the dissemination of these results so as to empower students with information that can help them avoid these types of problems before committing to a rental unit or how to deal with these problems in the cases when they weren’t avoided.

My hypothesis in approaching this venture was that an intervention would make a difference in student quality of life and my hope was that it will also bring those in authority (i.e. landlords, officials in charge of off-campus housing) to attention of the serious health consequences and disparities of poor housing. Although the true measurement of correctness for this hypothesis would be more accurately determined by a longer amount of time than was available to me (so as to better observe any behavior or policy change), the results thus far have been quite promising.

I first began my intervention by working directly with Garry Briggs, administrator at the office of BYU Off-Campus Housing. Garry agreed to publish an educational pamphlet and disseminate it in new-student orientation packets which were scheduled to be sent to all in-coming BYU freshmen. He also agreed to keep the pamphlets at the front desk of the BYU-Off Campus Housing office and continue re-printing and sending them out every semester. Next I began working with the creators of the popular apartment-rating website, “ratemyapartments.com”. Together we were able to add a link onto the website entitled, “Learn what to consider, know your rights as a tenant, and view the most common BYU housing problems”.

In order to ensure that these intervention methods would be appealing, logical and available to students I conducted two focus groups and 50 surveys. The results were favorable and the feedback validated my intervention methods and information.

I learned a great deal throughout this process and also encountered many obstacles. One of the most difficult things I encountered was the multiple revisions I had to make to the pamphlet and the many changes as to how they would be disseminated. Originally I was told that we would be able to send the pamphlets out in new-student orientation packets but the policies changed and I was forced to disseminate them at the new-student orientation fairs that take place on campus. Although this wasn’t ideal it was still very effective. I will also still go to present the information at a future orientation held in January. Another obstacle I encountered was the ability to put the information onto the “Rate My Apartments” website. I spent a great amount of time working with the creators to make the link ascetic and catching as well to create the necessary space for the information. Previous to this project I had never worked with websites and I found it fascinating and invaluable to learn all I did about the mechanics of a website.

There is still more work that could be done so as to ensure that the majority of the BYU student population become aware of the importance of environmentally sound housing and tenant rights, but the process has been started and steps are now in place to continue the education and dissemination of this important information.

I have since graduated from BYU and am currently working at the Utah County Health Department as a Health Educator. Many doors have been opened to me, and continue to open, because of the involvement I have had with this research. The ORCA grant allowed me to present this information at multiple conferences in Utah and throughout the United States; the most rewarding and prestigious being at the National Center for Environmental Health at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, GA.

Overall, this experience has been invaluable to my education and self-confidence. I am able to implement the things I learned every day and I know that it has given me a great advantage and allowed me to be an excellent asset to my job.