Students camp to stake claim on housing

By Joanna Aguirre

Students lined up outside of JSM Management as early as 10 p.m. Sunday night to reserve apartments.

JSM, located on 505 S. Fifth St., scheduled to open its doors at 7 a.m. Monday to let hopefuls set aside the apartment of their choice. Boardwalk apartments along the 500 block of East Healey Street were among the favorites.

Alicia Santeralli, junior in AHS, camped outside with her future roommates to reserve an apartment at Green Street Towers, located on 616 E. Green St.

“We went in shifts,” described Santeralli. “A couple of my roommates stayed until four, and then the other two of us came at four and stayed until seven.”

About 14 groups were ahead of Santeralli, who said Johnstowne Apartments, located on 508 E. John St., were already full before JSM’s opening time because current residents passed down or renewed leases at the complex.

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Jill Guth, director of development for JSM Management, said almost all of JSM’s 1,000 apartments were occupied, but Green Street Towers were the most sought after.

“It’s a fairly new building, and it has never had a vacancy,” said Guth.

Those who waited in line didn’t wait in vain, said Santarelli. The apartments were all taken after the camp out.

“There were only seven apartments left and we got the sixth one, so if we wouldn’t have waited we probably wouldn’t have gotten it,” Santeralli said. “I mean it was only one night to stay outside, which definitely was not fun, but now we get to live where we wanted to live.”

The great location of the Green Street Towers was the cause of the reserving competition that created the camp out. While leases were not signed on Monday, all of the apartments were accounted for, Guth said.

“They have all made appointments to sign the leases; that’s what the line was for today,” Guth said. “We are still signing as of today, but all of the apartments are spoken for and are definitely all reserved.”