Quarters Housing Project Case Study

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Introduction The Quarters housing project is one of the newest housing options designed and marketed for students to open in the Iowa City/Coralville area. It offers luxury amenities in an apartment style housing complex. In a city plagued by high housing costs, our group wanted to analyse the effects of this new student housing development in terms of sustainability. The Quarters project is also not without a bit of controversy. The development group that owns The Quarters bought out a low income housing complex and replaced it with expensive, luxury style student housing and in the process displaced many low income families. While the actions taken by the previous and current property managers were all completely legal, it is those actions …show more content…

Many of these residents have also been displaced due to The Quarters Housing project done within the last year and a half. In this instance, low income residents were unable to stay in their homes due to repairing and renovating of the old affordable apartment complex to make room for a new, luxurious, more expensive apartment complex. While Rose Oaks and The Quarters have acted within the law, they have abused their privilege by displacing many blacks and other minorities. Some residents faced financial hardships, while others faced homelessness. Many residents have also faced some sort of injustice, specifically environmental injustice and displacement from their homes. Prices on different apartments located in the city were not within a lot of people’s budgets. While we were unsuccessful in contacting tenants that lived at the complex previous to demolition, we were able to contact tenants that currently live in The Quarters. Our group looked at the amenities that the current residents have and what they would have done differently had they known of the displacement of people prior to moving in. We also looked at the transportation and how the busing systems of the new apartment complex could potentially affect other means of transportation. Additionally, we spoke with local businesses to see how they have been impacted. And finally, we called the local homeless shelter to see if there has been an increase in the population at the shelter or in need of its assistance since the housing

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