Frist Allen and his roommates were in the midst of a snowball fight during 2021’s COVID-19 pandemic when their neighbor came out and started filming. “I’m going to call the cops,” Allen’s neighbor screamed.
The men lived in a house next to Southern Methodist University’s campus. Allen said his neighbor collected evidence throughout the year to prove that he and his five roommates lived together in their house. Proof that they broke the “brothel law.”
University Park enacted the zoning ordinance known as the "brothel law" in 1973 to prevent overcrowding, trash violations and parking problems. The law prohibits more than two unrelated residents from living in the same housing unit.
“We felt like she was [out to get us] all year, and she knew all she had to do is prove that there are more people living there,” Allen said.
After the investigation confirmed that the six men lived together, officials subpoenaed them. One of the men testified in court on behalf of the group, but the case resulted in an eviction notice. They avoided immediate eviction due to a temporary Texas order, which, according to the Texas State Law Library, paused residential evictions until August of that year.
Limited Options
It's not uncommon for multiple SMU students to live together in University Park. Students say it's a way to live close to campus while saving money in a high-cost-of-living area. Some students say that the housing on campus can be problematic as well.
The average cost of rent and utilities for a one-person apartment in University Park is $1,430 according to livingcost.org. The average rent for a house for four is $646.75 per person a month. This makes the city in the top 14% of the most expensive cities in the world.
The residents of the streets neighboring SMU say their student neighbors are causing problems, which is why they want the city to enforce its own ordinance by evicting ordinance-breakers. But Jessica Rees, the city planner for University Park, said the ordinance is difficult to enforce even when complaints are being filed with the city.
“They think they’re breaking the violation of not more than two unrelated, which it’s hard for us to even prove that,” Rees said.
Increasing Violations
Lee Gleiser, an SMU professor, lived on Asbury Avenue near a group of students renting a duplex in 2021. Gleiser said it was like living next to a fraternity house.
“The worst experience we had was one of the gentlemen decided it was too hard to decide to walk inside his apartment, so instead he peed on the front lawn in front of us,” she said.
Gleiser couldn’t take it anymore, so she filed a lawsuit in 2021 over the brothel law ordinance. She said the students who violated the ordinance were later evicted.
Gleiser said things are better on Asbury Avenue now, but the problem hasn’t been solved – just relocated.
“All of our problems that we had are all in Rosedale,” Gleiser said.
Residents of Rosedale, Asbury, and Milton avenues have petitioned the city of University Park since the fall alleging that SMU students are violating the city’s zoning ordinance. The petition urges the city to enforce the ordinance and evict violators to discourage future violations. Several residents spoke at a recent University Park city council meeting about the topic.
“On a windy day, it is very frequent that we have trash in our backyard pool,” Nassi Agouridis said.
Lack of Voice
The University Park City Council listened to public comments but took no action on the ordinance. The issue is expected to be on a future city council agenda.
The council didn’t hear from SMU students who live in University Park during the meeting. Rees said it was unlikely they were unaware of the meeting, as all the speakers were local residents.
“I don’t think [the students’] side of it has ever really been represented,” Rees said.
University Park is not the only city in Texas where a lack of adequate student housing and zoning laws have sparked controversy between residents and students. College Station has recently placed zoning restrictions like the ones in University Park on neighborhoods surrounding Texas A&M’s campus, which highlight controversy between local residents and students.
In the fall of 2021, multiple duplexes on Rosedale Avenue in University Park were sued. The suit was settled, and the residents of these duplexes were asked to leave their homes at the end of the semester. Anna Payne, a 2023 SMU alumnus, was one of the residents of these duplexes.
“Eighty kids had to find other places to live in a matter of months,” Payne said. “We were told the houses would be used as single-family homes.”
When Payne moved into the white duplex on Rosedale Avenue with Drew Hemerick, she did not expect the roommates to split up.
The close-knit community they had built felt shattered, leaving them scrambling to find new housing options that ultimately didn’t exist if they were to abide by the “brothel law.”
“There should be some kind of reasonable option for students to live convenient to campus without having to secretly break laws,” Payne said.
The 2021 suit excluded a duplex Leslie Agouridis referred to specifically in her recent petition. She said one of the student tenants who lives in the duplex now said, “We don’t know how we can get away with living here when those apartments can’t.”
Allen said he’s confused as to why houses like the one he and his fraternity brothers lived in are built in University Park if it has an ordinance banning multiple students from living together.
He said the homes like the one he lived in are tailored to SMU students who want to live with their friends off campus.
“It wasn’t built for a family,” Allen said. “It was clearly built for students. I mean, there’s not even a proper place for a dining room.”
If future action is taken in the neighbors' favor, stories like Allen’s, Payne’s, and Hemerick’s will become more common on the streets surrounding SMU.
“Good thing we only had three months left on our lease before we graduated,” Allen said. “Others might not be so lucky.”
Southern Methodist University journalism students and KERA are collaborating on a series of stories that explore challenges college students are facing in finding affordable housing while universities scramble for more living spaces to meet the diverse needs of growing enrollments.
