[Housing Hell] The search for housing in Provo is an extreme bitch.I have been house and/or apartment hunting for over a month now in the Utah County bubble and have been disappointed by the lack of housing that is up to standard, not for married couples, and isn’t significantly overpriced.
Now the possibility of a whole new restriction on renters in Happy Valley should just about seal Utah County’s reputation as a conservative bubble of religious bias against non-members of the LDS Church.
The Provo City Council has stepped in with its own solution to opening up Provo/Orem area housing to the "right" kinds of tenants. The prescription? According to the Associated Press in The Daily Herald, criminal background checks could be mandated for all students and anyone else who rents a place in Provo…unless the perspective tenant is a registered student at BYU.
Some landlords do practice this activity by screening possible candidates with background checks before living in their properties. The Provo City Council is making an exception based on the fact that BYU has an honor code which students are “required” to follow on and off campus (and all BYU students do follow the honor code, 100 percent of the time, right?).
City Council attorney Neil Lindberg says the ordinance doesn't favor BYU because students at other schools could avoid the background check if their schools implemented a code of conduct.
I guess Mr. Lindberg forgot that not everyone wants to go to a school that keeps you thinking inside of the box. (Jennie Nicholls)
