Blog shines light on WVU off-campus housing

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A WVU journalism graduate student is using her senior thesis project to shine a light on off-campus housing problems in Morgantown.

Inspecting Sunnyside, a blog by Leann Ray, went live in early January. Her goal is to examine housing problems for West Virginia University's student population, which is about 30,000.

She hopes the blog can be a community resource. Students, parents, landlords, and all others are encouraged to post and interact, exchanging information and offering ways to help combat problems.

Sunnyside is perhaps the most notorious neighborhood in Morgantown for substandard housing. Despite the name of the blog, however, Ray said she is interested in renter-landlord relations in Morgantown as a whole.

"I still don't think it (the current state of housing) is that great," Ray said. "You have a lot of houses in Sunnyside and South Park that are very, very old; it's hard and expensive to keep those houses up.

"We're seeing a lot of (problems) in multiple apartment complexes. Most are outside city limits; that means code enforcement doesn't have to go inspect them."

Ray was the editor of the Daily Athenaeum, WVU's student newspaper, from 2007 to 2008. Two student housing-related events that were published within days of each other in August 2007 sparked her interest.

On August 18 of that year, a porch on a Grant Avenue apartment collapsed, sending two people to the hospital. Following the incident, the city stepped up inspections and condemned several apartments in Sunnyside.

"The first story was the porch collapse, and the second story was the houses that were condemned (on the same street)," Ray said. "You never really heard what happened to the students that got hurt."

Since that time, the number of housing inspectors in Morgantown has been increased. Two are now assigned specifically to Sunnyside. Previously, there were four code enforcement officers that inspected housing for the entire city.

Most recently, Ray has focused the blog's attention on landlord Gary Walden, 61, who was arrested last week after one of his tenant's told police she awoke in her bed to find him rubbing her leg. He and another man, Robert Wilson of Westover, were charged with breaking without entering and conspiracy.

Ray has used the blog to provide information on past allegations of sexual harassment against Walden and has published a link showing how many properties he owns in Morgantown.

She also has focused on basic housing issues for students, like mold and bed bugs.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A WVU journalism graduate student is using her senior thesis project to shine a light on off-campus housing problems in Morgantown.

Inspecting Sunnyside, a blog by Leann Ray, went live in early January. Her goal is to examine housing problems for West Virginia University's student population, which is about 30,000.

She hopes the blog can be a community resource. Students, parents, landlords, and all others are encouraged to post and interact, exchanging information and offering ways to help combat problems.

"We're seeing a lot of (problems) in multiple apartment complexes. Most are outside city limits; that means code enforcement doesn't have to go inspect them."

"The first story was the porch collapse, and the second story was the houses that were condemned (on the same street)," Ray said. "You never really heard what happened to the students that got hurt."

Ray has used the blog to provide information on past allegations of sexual harassment against Walden and has published a link showing how many properties he owns in Morgantown.

She also has focused on basic housing issues for students, like mold and bed bugs.

According to Earl Hewitt, WVU Student Government Association's off-campus housing executive director, bed bugs and mold are the two most prevalent problems affecting off-campus housing.

"I was just really surprised when I found out that bed bugs and mold were the major problems," Ray said. "I had no idea there were bed bugs in Morgantown.

You hear about them being in New York City and other places, but I had never heard about them in West Virginia, let alone Morgantown."

Bed bugs travel by clinging to clothes or bed sheets. Visiting families may unknowingly take the bugs back to their own homes. Once a home is infested, an extremely rigorous process is needed to remove the bugs.

Prolonged exposure to mold can make people ill, and if it isn't removed from the home, the occupant must move away to recover. Since there is no legislation in West Virginia pertaining to mold, affected tenants aren't able to leave due to their lease.

Environmental Protection Agency guidelines state that nine or more square feet of mold in one location could present a health hazard. Ray has also been covering ongoing legislative proposals from WVU's Student Government Association aimed at letting renters back out of their rental agreements if mold issues aren't addressed.

Ray also has collaborated with Sunnyside Up, a nonprofit organization working to revitalize the community by fixing sidewalks, painting dumpsters, and cutting trees and brush. She hopes the collaboration will help create a community effort to improve student housing.

"That area of town ends up being the most run down," Ray said. "Houses built for people in glass factories used to be there, and some houses are 100 years old. Landlords don't want to put money in for houses that will get torn up."

Ray said she enjoys the freedom, interaction, and public voice of the blog.

"I feel a need to help people, and this blog gives me a chance to do that," she said.

"I want it to be something open, for people to leave comments, let their voice be heard," she said. "And maybe something will come from it."

More is available at http://www.inspectingsunnyside.com, ; http://www.facebook.com/inspectingsunnyside and http://www.twitter.com/Leann_Ray.

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Blog shines light on WVU off-campus housing