Representatives from the Government of the Student Body, Iowa State and Ames City Council hope to combine efforts to reinstate a landlord-tenant mediation service.

With 45.8 percent of students living in off-campus housing — not including sororities or fraternities — a service that helps students deal with rental property issues could be beneficial.

Michael Heilman, off-campus senator and senior in political science, mentioned that the service could potentially aid students in finding resolutions to landlord-tenant disputes, including maintenance issues such as shoveling or repairs.

The service could also provide students with the proper forms they need to make maintenance requests or sort out rent issues. Heilman noted that having these forms available to students with this service could “expedite” the process of making requests.

Heilman also noted that the landlord-tenant service could have its own Web site that could “allow students to market their apartment when they move out, find places to live, and know all the available things in Ames,” Heilman said.

The landlord-tenant program would essentially have the same goal, Heilman said, as a service that existed until 2001 called Off-Campus and Adult Student Services.

The service, funded by GSB and the Dean of Students Office, was eliminated because of severe budget cuts in 2000-2001.

“The goal is to centralize all the existing services that are available to achieve the same things the office offered when it existed,” Heilman said.

Penny Rice, women’s center coordinator, headed Off-Campus and Adult Student Services for four years before it closed. She said the service included components such as mediation to settle roommate disputes, providing letter templates that would help students ensure their rights as renters were being protected, helping international students who may not be familiar with the rental process, and having a property managers association.

Funding the new program is an issue GSB is aware of. Paul Keppy, GSB City Council liaison and senior in political science, has been speaking with City Council about ideas for the service.

Keppy said that last year, GSB tried to restart a landlord-tenant liaison service, but the proposal was “cost prohibitive.”

“It was going to be too expensive on a yearly basis,” Keppy said. “It was yearly operating costs that I think was probably the biggest deterrent of that proposal.”

Heilman and Keppy have been entertaining the idea of compiling existing resources into one service.

Keppy and Heilman also said they would like to try to work with the Center for Creative Justice to start a mediation program for landlords and tenants.

“The ball is in the students’ court right now,” Keppy said of reinstating the landlord-tenant service. “We need to put together, as students, what we want and what we see the need for.”

Keppy said one of council’s goals was to keep Ames neighborhoods safe, and one of the objectives is to work with Iowa State and GSB to enhance interactions between students and residents.

The City Council has been discussing ways to work toward the goal and has identified landlord-tenant services as being a positive way to enhance interactions.

City Councilman Peter Orazem was a proponent of a landlord-tenant service.

Orazem said he thought the program would only work if both students and landlords were to gain something from it. He agreed it would be beneficial to have a mediation service for students and their landlords, along with being a resource for students to search for roommates and property rentals. Orazem said both these things would benefit both students and landlords.

He also said the program would work best if it were a joint venture between the city, landlords, the Student Services Office and GSB.

If all parties were involved, the proposal could be more successful and would be able to better fund the endeavor.

He suggested that all entities should meet and discuss potential features of the landlord-tenant program.

 Funding, he said, would also be a joint venture.

Rice said she thinks the landlord-tenant program would be a positive re-addition to campus and would be a resource for students to learn how to advocate for themselves.

She said she believes the funding should come from a joint effort between city of Ames, Iowa State and property managers.

The proposal is still in its early stages, but Keppy said there will be a meeting March 9 to hash out more ideas about the landlord-tenant program.