University of Kentucky students report issues related to off-campus housing regarding security, cleanliness and affordability.
UK expected 8,000 total students to live on campus and 35,952 students were enrolled in fall 2024, meaning the majority of UK students live off campus, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader and UK’s analytic website.
Ella Dillon, a sophomore psychology major, said she once saw two unknown older men inside her apartment complex’s parking lot early in the morning.
“I go out there, and there’s these two old guys that are looking around in the cars and trying to see if they can get anything,” Dillon said. “One of them has a bat in their hand.”
Dillon said although she was shaking and did not really know what to do, she went back inside her apartment and called 911.
“I was so scared, because I didn’t want them to take me or anything,” Dillon said. “I don’t know if they were gonna kidnap me or what, but I wasn’t gonna risk anything.”
Dillon said she reported the situation to the property manager, but there was no resolution.
There are no security cameras or police in the complex, according to Dillon.
Bellamy Martin, a sophomore majoring in linguistics and French with minors in German and history, has also faced security problems. Martin said she does not feel unsafe, but her complex is “as open as campus is.”
Martin said anyone can easily access her residential area, because the fence’s gate is never closed, letting people come into her complex.
According to Martin, the driveway is open and connected to a parking lot for a refrigerated food warehouse, allowing anyone to go in and out.
Martin said there was an instance where some kids from the neighborhood behind the complex walked onto the property and pulled the property’s fire alarm, making residents evacuate their apartments.
Fire trucks and the property’s landlord showed up and turned off the fire alarm because they did not find anything or anyone, according to Martin.
Another issue that students face off campus is affording housing. Dillon said her biggest problem was affordability because her housing is “pretty pricey” and she pays for college on her own.
Dillon said she was working 15 to 20 hours last semester to afford her rent and tuition.
At the end of last semester, Dillon said she applied for $23,000 in student loans for the 2024-25 academic year to help her with her $895 monthly rent and college tuition.
“I’m gonna have a lot of student debt,” Dillon said. “But it’ll help me for now to feel less stressed about covering my rent.”
Dillon said she felt “behind in school” because she was worrying about work, “pulling her away” from her schoolwork.
According to Dillon, she did not have time to go to the library or complete her assignments.
“I wish that my only worry was school. It wasn’t,” Dillon said. “It was work and school. It was just a lot to tackle.”
Martin said finding an apartment was a “little crazy” because she had to find an available place in Lexington for her and her roommate in a short period of time.
According to Martin, she was assigned to a UK Tri-It dorm but her friend’s housing assignment wasn’t available until March.
Since Martin’s cancellation deadline was Feb. 28 and she wanted to live with her friend, she had to cancel her housing application.
“I had to pull out of the on-campus housing really quickly and kind of speed run for apartments, which was really stressful,” Martin said.
Rent and availability were always changing within apartments with prices constantly going up, according to Martin.
“We just kind of had to go with whatever was available, whatever was closest and cheapest,” Martin said.
Besides security and searching for apartment problems, Martin said there were also issues related to cleanliness.
When Martin got home one day, she said her apartment was dirty due to maintenance installing drywall inside a closet, and it took her three hours to clean it.
“There was a ton of stress with that at the beginning (of the semester),” Martin said. “It was the first couple of weeks of school, there were repairs, there were people in my room all the time.”
Martin said her air conditioner was turned off when it was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit at the beginning of the fall semester, but she still does not know why.
She was provided with “little box AC units” that she said cooled down the living room, but the cool air did not last long because she did not have a way to seal off the open window.
Martin said the air conditioner problem continued for a month and the office paid the electric bill for this period.
At the same time, Martin said there was water damage to the floor of her bathroom causing it to become “soft and distorted,” lowering one side of the toilet.
“They (maintenance) took the toilet, put it in the bathtub, and then didn’t come back for two weeks, so we just had one bathroom,” Martin said. “When they did come back, we had to remind them that this is an unfinished project.”
Martin said the toilet was put back but there was still no fix for the floor, which took another week to get. While the toilet was in the tub it cracked the bath, according to Martin.
“It was a little crazy, because even after they finished all of that, for some reason they didn’t put the door back on,” Martin said. “So we had a working bathroom, but no door for a day.”
According to Martin, these obstacles negatively impacted her and “threw a wrench” into her college experience.
“I felt it was super stressful the first couple of months because I was dealing with all of that,” Martin said. “It never really felt like I got to get a good routine for class because of that and that threw me off.”
Martin said she never felt “caught up” or comfortable in any of her classes she would have enjoyed otherwise.
“I was super busy, constantly thinking about different things and stressed about different things,” Martin said. “That’s adult life, but I wasn’t quite ready to be dropped into it like that, and so that made last semester pretty rough.”
Even though she said she likes where she lives, Martin said the issues she faces would not happen in a dorm, making her wonder if this was the best way to spend money.
