A recent post on the AJC reported that the three ongoing apartment developments in downtown Decatur (315 West Ponce, Trinity Triangle and Paces Clairemont) would add a total of 600 units to the city.
While 600 new residences in such a short amount of time is certainly interesting – and worth discussion – what’s even more interesting is the bedroom breakdown. (I realize that sort of sounds like a some kind of illicit activity)
Of the 600 apartments being constructed, 70% of them are 1 bedroom. Of the remaining, 29% are 2 bedroom and just 1% are three bedroom.
We followed up with Assistant City Manager Lyn Menne regarding the reason why a city with such a self-destructive appeal for families is building so many 1 bedrooms. She replied…
It’s all about market and pricing but we were also encouraging developers away from larger units for fear of impact on schools. However, the real driver was market.
The market driver explanation is interesting, since the limited case study of the Place on Ponce has shown that there is currently greater demand for 2 bedroom apartments than 1 bedrooms in the current market. (Though as of yesterday, it sounds like all the 1 bedrooms have also leased)
But perhaps that’s a short-sighted view and the real goal of the developers is to cater to the underserved market of young singles and retirees who currently have few options inside the city limits. Regardless, the overwhelming majority of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments is certainly good news for the city’s school system, which is struggling to keep up with rising enrollment.
I think many people now are willing to go smaller to afford a desirable location. They might prefer a 2 or 3 bedroom unit, but not if it means settling for a less walkable, less attractive location.
You may be looking at the market from the wrong perspective. Perhaps a building full of 1 BR apartments is more profitable than a building of 2 BR apartments.
That may be true as well. As I said admitted in my post, just looking at the leasing patterns of the Place on Ponce may be too short-sighted. The long game may be appealing to the wider one-bedroom market, which is more prevalent in Atlanta itself, etc.
It’s only more profitable if there are people willing to lease them, though. I believe what we’re seeing here, as is being demonstrated elsewhere, is a perception shift. For decades, the typical apartment product was transitional concession housing, carrying with it the cultural implication that, of course, it’s just a place to be until your circumstances allow for a house purchase. Because that’s what everyone wants, right?!
While apartments will likely remain more transitional for some time, if not all time, it seems like they’re no longer seen exclusively as a concession. Between economic trends and development trends, many apartments now (finally) offer people the option of living in the midst of all the things they want to do, in a way that offers the free time to enjoy it.
Does anyone else wonder (worry) about this scenario: rent on a 1-bedroom apt to establish residency * 12 month = cheaper than private school tuition. And if you don’t really wantor need to live there and sublet it to a single person or someone who needs office space, or can figure out how to airb&b it under the radar… that’s seriously tempting tuition booyah.
You mean just rent the apartment and not live there? That’s not technically legal. You have to prove that the home/apartment in COD is your primary residence. CSD is constantly on the look out for these types of situations. We’ve discussed it here most recently involving the Ice House Lofts, I believe.
“That’s not technically legal.”
It’s technically a felony. The school system should make this well-known (if they don’t already). People who do this or are thinking of doing it should know they are making themselves into criminals.
Are they appropriately vigilant? I am skeptical.
The lofts story got a lot of press, but I have read the school board guidelines and it seems pretty easy to me to game the system. Rent a place. Pay a utility bill, transfer a license. Yes the school board policy identifies particular grade transitions and new enrollees as receiving “extra scrutiny”, but to what extent? I suspect this is an area where the school system is somewhat out of its element — they don’t know what they don’t know.
It may also be a resource issue. A problem that is “in the noise” and thus only worth allocating limited resources to. One can argue this on principles, but there is also an economic cost to enforcement as well.
There are private companies that do this (and cater to municipalities and school systems). These companies have access to lots of consumer level data and can do a lot more paper/e-surveiilance/investigating than I suspect a CSD employee can do (or is trained to do).
I dug up the “Lofts story”. Can you believe it was all the way back in 2008? How many years ago was that?
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2008/03/12/getting-into-decatur-schools-through-the-backdoor/
I also read the School Board minutes, in particular, the Superintendent’s report, when they are posted each month. It is a topic that I have little recollection of reading about, if at all.
The school board website does not seem to make it easy to actually search the content of posted documents, just the document titles, so I won’t even try.
I’ve asked CSD if they can provide any details on the policy. We’ll see what they say.
But did anything more ever come of it? Sounds like it was just one person’s assertion. Not saying there wasn’t some truth to it, though. I assume that there are stronger enforcement measures in place now that overcrowding is even more of an issue than in 2008.
Has anyone heard whatever happened with the parents at Grady HS who allegedly committed a similar fraud? When that scandal broke last year, it was reported that about a quarter of the football team didn’t live in the district.
Ah, good ol’ 2008.
When a topic such as shady renters and school overcrowding only got 12 comments (two of those from DM formerly known as decaturite)! Those were the days when we all just got along.
Props to your growth DM.
Re the outsourcing of this to companies, this might be a worthwhile idea even if they are only flagging addresses and letting CSD decide whether to proceed any further. I wouldn’t think the data sleuthing would be nearly as costly as the next step of enforcement, which would involve more legwork.
It’s true that CSD is appropriately vigilant. But that will get harder and harder, especially if the lease, water bill, etc. are all in the name of the family that is renting for the sake of school attendance but a single unofficial subletter is actually living there and paying rent/bills to the official renter. Having lived in places with rent control or Prop 13 in the distant past, I can attest to how creative and widespread unofficial subletting can be. As CSD enrollment increases and creative bending of the rules increases, it will get harder and harder for CSD to be on top of enrollment fraud.
Is this just a concern you want to see CSD address or do you have an alternative course you’d like to suggest? –Like not building any more multi-family rental housing within the city limits…?
But the market’s being flooded with hundreds of competitively priced, new one-bedrooms over the next 18 months, which is not the case in places like NYC. What would be the incentive for someone to enter into a semi-shifty sublet from a school scammer when they could just walk down to the leasing office and get the exact same thing on the up-and-up?
Maybe the school scammer cuts them a deal on the rent–after all, if the scammer’s paying the rent as a form of tuition anyway, they may not mind not recouping all of their costs on the rental transaction. So if someone can get an apartment that ordinarily rents for $2,000 a month for $1700 a month, the scammer probably wouldn’t mind eating the $300 just to keep their kids in CSD.
Gosh, I can’t believe I’ve gotten sucked in to thinking of these scenarios. SMH.
But to make that known in a market with plenty of choices, you’d need to market fairly openly, which seems counter to the goal of remaining under the radar.
But you’re right. A little Occam’s Razor is in order here. We’re bending over backwards to come up with all kinds of complicated scenarios to explain why doom is imminent, rather than accepting the far simpler likelihood that the units will largely appeal to those who want to rent here but are presently offered few options.
“We’re bending over backwards to come up with all kinds of complicated scenarios to explain why doom is imminent,”
I think we’re also perhaps overestimating people’s willingness to commit fraud.
Having been made aware of (and reporting) more than one instance of using rentals for the sole purpose of accessing the schools, I can testify to people’s willingness to commit fraud.
What was the outcome of you reporting the fraud?
It was near the end of the school year, so I don’t know if CSD addressed it. They ended up in another rental in the city as their primary residence, so their daughter became legit.
It just seems that the more apts. you have to police, the more peoplepower it will take for the schools to stay on top of it. I wonder if that’s been factored into impact estimates.
“It just seems that the more apts. you have to police, the more peoplepower it will take for the schools to stay on top of it.”
Maybe, maybe not. It would take only common sense to look at what the enrollment numbers are for certain addresses (remember, apartments all have the same address except for the unit #) and notice if they were obviously too high. Then it’s just a matter of knocking on doors. The important thing would be to make an example of anyone caught doing it by prosecuting the parent to the max. Plus, there’s also the apartment management who would likely have their own rules that they enforce.
Plus, take a look at the number of students “residing” at a given unit number. Possible, but not likely that two or more students would have the same 1 bedroom unit number.
“Possible, but not likely that two or more students would have the same one bedroom unit number.”
Good point. And also, isn’t that in itself a violation of code? Having more than a certain number of people per bedroom?
Actually, if I were the person doing enforcement, I’d be suspicious of any enrollments with addresses that match up with one bedroom units.
How many units do you think are going to be used in this way realistically? That’s a pretty elaborate set up, and if enough people do it, then I’m sure the COD will come down hard. I don’t think it makes sense to spend a whole lot of time and resources trying to prevent it from happening.
In the last 12 months, I have met at least 2 parents who know of a student at CSD whose parents are committing this crime, and although both agreed that what the parents were doing constituted theft, neither were willing to turn the student in. As our schools get more crowded, hopefully attitudes will shift and the offenders will be reported. I won’t say those who refuse to report the offenders are as much of a problem as those committing the offense, but their inaction is certainly contributing to the problem. We have to help the schools police this activity and enforce the policy.
Question for those who have been through the enrollment process: what proof of address is required? Do you have to show state ID/driver’s license? Now that the law requires these to be updated to reflect your current address, I’d think requiring them to be displayed during enrollment would be one more obstacle to fraud, however small. Even the library requires to reprove your address every two years now with proper ID. Surely the schools should be doing it once a year.
Drivers license and a utility bill, lease, or deed to enroll.
The year our older kid enrolled (she was homeschooled until high school), we did receive a letter from CSD telling us that we may be contacted for additional information verification (9th grade is one of their target years). We never were.
And we are multiresidential building dwellers 🙂
I think y’all are overanalyzing this. I am skeptical that CSD has the staffing know-how to consider and investigate these issues. This is more PI material than something a school system deals with. I want to again plug outsourcing and leaving it to the experts …
So maybe a few people will try and/or succeed in committing this fraud.
I just don’t think that we should halt or give up the benefits to our city (increased affordable housing, more young single people, diversity, increased tax revenue to the city w/o substantial burden on the schools) that comes with all of these 1 and 2 bedroom apartments – just because a few people might get away with fraud.
How did you read that into my post? Neither do I. I just want parents to report offenders to help minimize the effects of the fraud.
+1. Besides, it would be far more effective to put a halt to single family teardowns and cap the size of new construction. (not that I’m advocating for that)
“although both agreed that what the parents were doing constituted theft, neither were willing to turn the student in.” — This puzzles me. Difficult? Awkward? Absolutely, no question about it. But wouldn’t all of that be outweighed–narrowly, perhaps, but clearly–by concern for the messages being conveyed to one’s own child(ren) about honesty and integrity? What is the rationale offered that it’s OK for so-and-so’s family to cheat? (Assuming these parents are trying to teach their own children that cheating is wrong.)
You may be surprised to hear this, but I didn’t press either parent on their decision, or the message it sends to their own children. But I agree with you 100%.
I know three families that have rented apartments in CoD in which they did not live and sent their kids to CSD schools. In all cases the families rented a one bedroom apt. I can not believe that CSD is doing a thorough review of residency as it seems pretty obvious that the families were not living there.
Did you report them?
Let’s put it this way.
If they know of such families, the odds are that it is because their children are friends, or at least acquaintances. That makes the moral calculus more complicated, at least for some people.
In addition, sometimes you’re not positive there’s fraud involved when you meet a fellow school family and something sounds fishy. You hope you’re wrong. City of Decatur is just small town enough that many staff and teachers are also residents and, even if they are not, their children probably attend CSD so they are fellow parents. In this highly-connected atmosphere, you hesitate to speak up unless you are 100% sure that fraud is involved. A mistaken report could poison the atmosphere.
This really boils down to “if you’re going to involve the authorities, know what the hell you’re talking about.” Good advice on multiple fronts, really.
I have read a rule somewhere stating that personal must live in the declared residence full-time. My co-worker lives in a (old) condo in Decatur and has a neighbor with 3 kids who only uses her place Monday through Thursday. She didn’t understand why until I explained the draw for Decatur schools.
I know at least two families in Postal Decatur who have discussed leasing apartments and not live in them just to sign up for schools. I am not amused. If it happens, I will turn them in.
There’s quite a large gap in prices between the 1 and 2 bedroom apartments at the Place on Ponce. I wonder how much impact that has if a single person/couple has to settle on the 1 bedroom because they can’t afford (or justify) $2400 on a 2 bedroom apartment.
I’m sure economic choices are being made but I’m not so sure “settling” is the right word. All the demographic and lifestyle studies being done on Millennials point to the fact that they prioritize experience over housing. For no small percentage (likely the dominant percentage), your dwelling is a place to sleep and keep your limited amount of stuff. What it facilitates in terms of external connection and experience is the real draw. Paying less for housing in a good place frees up money for the things you want to do.
i say 1-bedroom, 1-schmedroom
why, when i was a younger man living in the West Village, we squeezed four adults into an 650 square feet 1-bedroom flat—and we were glad to have it!
living like rats [twitch] never hurt anyone.
We were in Queens before we moved here and it was pretty standard for families with 1-2 children to live in 1 bedroom apartments! I kinda miss it 🙂
There was more room and better views up in Spanish Harlem but more muggings.
When I met husband when we were both living in England, there were 16 people under 27 in his three bedroom flat. Stuey had the couch and tended towards incontinence after drinking. He stayed with me a lot.
Re: apartments vs owning a home: I have seen some recent studies that indicate a slow trend among millennials toward apartments because they a) expect to be more mobile, b) don’t want all the attendant upkeep, etc. that come with owning a home.
Of course, the bigger trend underlying this is the delaying of marriage, and more importantly, the delaying of child-rearing.
Don’t assume that lack of marriage leads to lack of children.
I’m not. But the average age at which an American woman has her first child has increased by more than 5 years since 1970.
Also because we can’t save enough money for a down payment given coming of age during the Great Recession, wage stagnation, un/underemployment, etc. “Expecting to be more mobile” = “expecting to get laid off soon, probably, needing to relocate in order to not starve, and not wanting to be underwater on a mortgage when that happens.” Millennials are the new grandmas who won’t throw away used tinfoil because we grew up during a time of economic crisis. Only our solution is to never invest in tinfoil in the first place, because there’s this new app that just lets you rent tinfoil on days when you need it, and we can probably learn to get by without tinfoil most of the time.
I own a house in Decatur that I have been renting out while I lived out of state for 5 years and have been renting a condo in downtown Decatur since moving back. I agree with Steve’s points. I do however miss the feeling of being able to put my stamp on my space, which I find very limiting with renting. Yes some might find it silly to care about fixtures and kitchen finishes, but I am a homebody, so I want my space to be more than somewhere I just sleep.
Yeah, who wants to deal with all that upkeep?
To that point, can someone recommend an affordable/reliable company to come deal with the squirrels getting into my attic? I would plug the hole myself but I read the resulting problems of a trapped squirrel outweigh the savings of this DIY approach.
Staying on topic, renters don’t have to deal with this nonsense! But I seriously need a recommendation and I can’t wait until FFAF.
Several years ago, I hired a guy named Stewart to rid my attic and crawlspace of invaders and seal things up. I believe his company is Action Critter Removal. He set live traps and took the captives away (to feed his hawks). It was effective but not cheap.
FYI: You can always send me a note via email and I can often times give you a dedicated post for such recommendations.
Maybe you should install a ceiling cat?
Awesome. If 70 percent of the apartments are one bedroom units and each of those renters own a car, that’s 420 more cars moving in and out of our city every day. If half of those renters own a car, it’s still 210 more cars.
It already takes 15 minutes to get around Commerce. That’s looking more like 30 now.
But who knows, maybe all the residents will utilize the limited public transportation options we have in Atlanta.
“But who knows, maybe all the residents will utilize the limited public transportation options we have in Atlanta.”
I’m glad I don’t have to worry much about what all those residents do, and instead concentrate on what my wife and I can do, which is avoid driving in downtown Decatur whenever possible.
Well I’m glad you’re satisfied, but you do have to take into account that many people who live in Decatur work elsewhere. And Decatur is also a major thoroughfare for people who are connecting with Clairmont to get to their jobs. Commerce is going to be an absolute nightmare. So much for being a bypass for downtown Decatur. It just won’t matter anymore. Hopefully the City will be able to come up with a solution.
I didn’t mean to be snarky. My point was that, as much as I’d like to influence those new residents’ behavior, it’s much easier to control my own.
Wow. All those cars are going to be leaving Decatur and returning to Decatur at exactly the same time every morning and evening and taking the same routes? Amazing.
BTW I take Commerce nearly every day from West Howard to Church St at approximately 9 AM every weekday and it never takes more than 5 minutes, even with all the construction going on at the Fidelity site.
I’ve gotten lost as to where we are in the enrollment fraud discussion but I’d like to make the point that CSD does currently enforce the residency rules. Over the years, we’ve had to bring the required paperwork–water bill, mortgage statement, etc.–to school to prove bona fide residency. Can’t remember exactly how often and why–maybe with school changes, which of course are frequent in CSD–feels like at least 4 or 5 times over our kids school careers. I have heard of house checks in which school staff were checking for evidence of a child’s room, kids’ stuff in bathroom, kitchen stocked for kids–e.g. milk, apple juice, plastic dinnerware, place to do homework, i.e. true residency. My kids are aware of fellow students who had to leave school because their family didn’t meet residency requirements–usually a case of living with a relative who was a COD resident but didn’t have legal custody.
How much enrollment fraud is likely to go on in the future, I don’t know. I just know that when an illegal activity becomes perceived as “everyone” does it, it begins to be perceived as the norm, not a shameful activity, and then it becomes even more common. A counterbalance to that perception is when there’s strict enforcement and the perception becomes “you sure to get caught”.
I think I have had to show residency papers 8-9 times for my kids combined (no, we don’t live in an apartment–and we were not singled out–but there were a couple times we had to show proof within a year…)
But none of this will detect the renter-in-absence phenomena. Just show again that you have a lease, drivers license, utility bill. How do they choose who to scrutinize?
The other issue, I’m sure, is a reticence on behalf of the system to go after parents in a public fashion because kids are involved. So most people considering breaking the rules figure the worst that could happen if they’re caught is that their children are quietly removed from the system.
Can’t add apartments, because too much risk for fraud and more cars
Can’t add condos, risk of too many kids and plus it’s not fair that they own in Decatur without paying as much as people in houses
Can’t add McMansions, they are decidedly hideous by the peanut gallery and people in big houses might be encouraged to procreate based on the square footage of their home
Can’t add commercial and bars, because it’s too close to churches/schools/your house
Can’t raise taxes, too high
I did in fact call out the CSD location checker folks once when I observed a DHS student with a non-DeKalb tag parking his car in a lot 2 blocks from the school every day. I gave then the car info and a week later din’t see him anymore.
Cars can be tricky though– it is possible that a non-custodial parent who lives in Atlanta provides vehicle. Seems like a bunch of kids we know with divorced parents go back and forth between COD and Atlanta.
I agree with brianc that CSD should vigorously promote the message that enrollment fraud is a felony. I’ll bet some families who do it don’t know that or convince themselves that it doesn’t matter.They probably think that the worst that will happen is that their students will be thrown out. Many folks have a moral scale in which dishonesty that doesn’t cause obvious, immediate, and direct harm to others is considered in the category of “white lies”. However, they would consider a felony to be more serious. I don’t remember if the term “felony” is on the residency paperwork that you file now and again with the school system but fine print may be too subtle for some folks. Perhaps the message should be promoted in other ways–e.g. a separate statement with big text that you have to sign acknowledging that enrollment fraud is a felony, a flyer for families about enrollment fraud, statements on the website where prospective families might go, eBlast messages, etc.
I took a look at the online forms (“new student application”) and it does mention the penalties, which can be up to 5 years in prison. But they’re not prominently listed.
Wow, up to 5 years in prison. That needs to be posted somewhere prominent on registration days and on the registration pages of the website. I can just see the sign inside the front door of Central Office on registration days:
“Welcome to CSD!
We provide a rigorous, engaging and authentic learning experience delivered by highly qualified, caring adults in safe and inviting schools…
.if you really and truly reside here. If you don’t, turn back NOW because we INVESTIGATE residency claims. False statements can result in as many as 5 YEARS OF JAIL. We’re not kidding and true residents of the City of Decatur are pretty grouchy about crowded schools and rising taxes and WILL TELL ON YOU.
To help bring a bit more clarity to this conversation, here are the residency requirements courtesy of CSD…
CSD Residency Requirements
Parents are required to submit the following documents for proof of residency
Proof of ownership
Warranty deed, quit-claim deed or security deed
Mortgage statement or pay coupon
Property tax statement
Settlement statement(HUD-1)
Proof of Leased address
Lease (all leases are subject to verification from landlord)
Lease period must be current
Lease must have end date
Lease must be signed and dated by landlord
Parent must sign lease verification form
UTILITY BILL :current within the last 30 days (must state address of the legal residence)
Power – Water – Gas
Excerpt From Policy JBC School Admissions:
To classify as a resident student, a student shall be required to reside with his/her parent, legal custodian or legal guardian within the city limits of the City of Decatur. For purposes of this policy, a resident is defined as an individual who is legally domiciled within the city limits of the City of Decatur and who, on any given school day, is likely to be at their stated address when not at work or school. Where custody of a child is shared by two or more persons, that person who has the majority of time in physical custody shall be the parent or legal custodian whose residency shall be used for determining domicile and enrollment. A person who owns property in the City of Decatur, but does not reside in the city, is not considered a resident for purposes of enrollment. Proof of residency is required when a student initially enrolls in a school and whenever a change of residence occurs. The superintendent shall be authorized to designate documents or other evidence that constitute acceptable proof of residency as part of the enrollment procedures consistent with this policy. A School District employee may visit the address given at the time of enrollment or at anytime thereafter to verify residency. The property address given must be the actual location where the student and parent, legal custodian or legal guardian are legally domiciled.
All requirements for school admission mandated by the State Board of Education shall be followed for admission to City Schools of Decatur. In addition, residency checks are performed at each matriculation point (kindergarten, grades 4, 6, and 9) and as may be necessary.
For those who actually live in CoD, why don’t you get your elected officials to add a brand spanking new city ordinance that puts the apartment leasing company on the hook for any fraud? If the leasing company doesn’t monitor their own building, cite them. Each day is usually a continuing violation subject to a large fine per day. This would be in addition to any potential violations against the illegitimate renter.
Y’all are a bunch of Nosy Parkers.
Why?
One thing not brought up is that these apartments will most likely be a net contributor to the tax revenue unlike most single family homes. Apartments do not get the generous homestead exemption that many of us enjoy.