Kevin Treadway, a Syracuse University junior, has lived in three off-campus apartments during his two years in college. All of them have been inaccessible for people with disabilities, he said. 

Many apartments in the University Neighborhood lack ramps, retrofitted doors and wide hallways. These modifications make it easier for people with disabilities, especially those using wheelchairs, to access housing.

Treadway, president of SU’s Disability Student Union, and other students with disabilities told The Daily Orange that off-campus properties can lack disability accommodations and housing options on SU’s campus can be non-inclusive.

SU currently requires students to live on campus for two years, whether in dorms or apartment-style housing on South Campus. After that, students can live in apartment complexes, off-campus houses turned into apartments and luxury student housing. 

Treadway, who lives on Trinity Place, said the single-family homes that have been renovated into apartments are inaccessible to enter and exit. He has intermittent-to-recurring bilateral sciatica —  which creates a feeling of immense pressure and knife-like pain for Treadway, usually around his hips — as well as anxiety, Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 

The railings of exterior steps are often rickety, including one outside his property, which he said moves with very little effort. Depending on the railing for support could pose problems for some people, he said. 

“This has been true of actually all three apartments I’ve lived in,” he said. “The stairs are usually not up to par. They’re not sturdy. They give me anxiety to walk on,” Treadway said. 

Bowing floorboards, while more of an anxiety concern for Treadway than an accessibility issue, affect how he navigates his apartment, he said. 

Treadway said accessibility problems exist in off-campus housing, in part, because some landlords don’t care about their tenants, and a lot of them are interested only in money. 

Ben Tupper, owner of Rent from Ben, said his homes are like all other homes in the neighborhood. None of his properties have wheelchair ramps, he said, but he would invest in disability accommodations if he had a customer base that asked for it. 

The Fair Housing Act prohibits landlords from refusing to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities that would allow them to fully use their properties.

Tupper’s philosophy has always been to be more inclusive, he said.

“If I had an influx of people contacting me with different types of disabilities, I would want to meet that challenge of continuing that policy of trying to be as inclusive as possible for all my customers or potential customers,” Tupper said. 

Tupper said he’s always had a proactive and supportive policy for allowing pets, including service animals. Mental health challenges are just as real as physical ones, he said.

Eddie Zaremba, a third-year law student, lives with his fiancé in Tipperary Hill, a neighborhood in Syracuse’s Westside. Before moving to the neighborhood, Zaremba lived in several apartments near Walnut Avenue and Madison Street. 

Zaremba was born with a vision impairment and knee problems that will eventually require replacement. 

“I just couldn’t live on Mount Olympus,” Zaremba said. “It would be a terrible choice, it would probably put undue stress on my knees and it just wouldn’t be right.” 

Even if on-campus housing options have been renovated and may be accessible for students with disabilities, Zaremba said, it can be a major undertaking to get to class from residence halls located on the perimeter of campus, like Lawrinson Hall and the Brewster/Boland/Brockway Complex.

“An important part about talking about inclusion is talking about the community,” Zaremba said. “You could have a student with a disability who lives on top of Mount Olympus, but then, I mean, are they legitimately gonna come down to go hang out with their friends or try and go to a party?”

Portia Altman, a disability access counselor and the service coordinator at SU’s Office of Disability Services, works with on-campus and off-campus housing options to help students find accessible housing.

Aspen Heights Apartments and U Point Syracuse, among other complexes, have been willing to make adaptations to accommodate students with disabilities, Altman said. Aspen Heights has at least four units with accessible rooms and bathrooms, she said. 

Treadway said the university is working every day to make the campus more accommodating for students with disabilities. SU has a personal stake in ensuring students’ lives are as accessible as possible, he said. 

Zaremba said he would appreciate if property owners were able to renovate their homes to be more accessible for the people who live there and to allow friends with disabilities to visit. That’ s impossible, though, as the renovation costs would outweigh the home’s value, he said. 

“Knowing now what I know about old houses, because I have one, I say tear them down and put up something that’s better,” he said.

Published on October 20, 2019 at 8:56 pm

Contact Emma: esfolts@syr.edu