Eric Brown arrived in Evanston last September to pursue a Ph.D. at Northwestern University. The aspiring chemical engineer`s first lesson wasn`t on polypeptides, however, but on the difficulty of finding housing.
”I came two weeks before school started and didn`t know anyone as far as finding a roommate,” says the 23-year-old New Mexico native. ”My first choice would have been an apartment, but there weren`t too many in the range I was looking for.”
Eager to move out of the motel in which he was temporarily camped, Brown returned to the university`s off-campus housing office for another look at the listings. That`s how he found Dalia Benz, a Winnetka dental office manager with room to spare in her Evanston home. A few days later, Brown had a room, bathroom and laundry privileges in Benz`s home, not to mention his very own shelf in the family refrigerator. And Benz had a guarantee of $360 a month in rent to aid in the upkeep of her large, three-story house.
Brown and Benz are part of a network of homeowners in search of help with their mortgage payments and tenants in need of temporary housing who have joined forces for mutual benefit. There`s little information on the number of Chicago and suburban private homes that take in tenants, but the combination of big houses, big mortgages and economic necessity have made rental rooms available in homes in some of the area`s best residential neighborhoods.
Not a mass market
This housing alternative isn`t for everyone, however. For starters, rooms in private homes can be difficult to come by. More rooms are probably advertised by word of mouth than in major newspapers, making the search especially hard for newcomers to the area.
”I grew up on the South Side, where a lot of people let rooms in their homes,” says Eric Rubenstein, president of the Single Room Operators Association, a trade association for the owners of rooming houses. ”But it was done very quietly, by word of mouth, with ads in the local paper, or notices posted in grocery stores.”
If homeowners are relatively close-mouthed about the availability of rooms to let, it`s for two reasons. Some municipalities, such as Evanston, have ordinances limiting the number of rooms private homeowners may rent to unrelated tenants. ”If the neighbors become unhappy-say, too many parking places are being taken on the street-they can put on pressure,” says Rubenstein.
In addition, homeowners who open their houses to tenants are much choosier about screening prospective renters than property managers at big apartment buildings can afford to be. To gain a berth in a private home, prospective renters not only have to meet the usual criteria of providing references, proof of employment or income, and security deposit, but must also score in what can only be called personal chemistry-namely, whether the homeowner feels comfortable about sharing the house with them.
Tenants who pass the test will find themselves bound by rules not in force in the more anonymous setting of apartment buildings. For instance, kitchen or laundry access may be limited to certain hours. Parties, visitors and houseguests are matters to be negotiated with the homeowner, and in some cases, they`re off limits altogether, a consideration for the socially inclined. ”I made it very clear that I was renting to one person only, and that they could not entertain a boyfriend or girlfriend in their room,” says Helen Palmer, an Evanston resident who for several years rented to students in her four-bedroom home.
Flexibility
The arrangements are more flexible than the typical one-year apartment lease. While homeowners ask for commitment of a certain length of time, typically tenants sign a contract that allows either side to cancel the arrangement on one month`s notice.
The rent typically includes utilities, furnishings and, in some cases, linens. Tenants supply their own phone. Even where kitchen or laundry access is part of the deal, tenants should realize that this access doesn`t extend to the rest of the house. Sharing a roof doesn`t mean sharing the use of the living room, television or other rooms or facilities unless the homeowner says so. Palmer once had a student tenant who refused to play by those rules. ”He was all over the place, and he was always asking for this and that. At the end of the quarter, I asked him to leave,” she says.
Other landlords complain of in-house tenants who leave wet laundry strewn about, try to cook food in their room, or, more seriously, fail to come up with the rent. Yet in other cases, landlord-tenant relationships evolve into friendship.
Palmer had one student tenant for three years, whose wedding she attended and with whom she still exchanges birthday cards. ”We were just like a family,” she says. ”He had every privilege in this house.”
Students aren`t the only category of renters who have temporary shelter in someone else`s house. David Dalton, a sales representative, rents a room in west suburban Woodridge from Marion Mirovsky, an industrial nurse and ”empty- nester.”
Homeowner`s incentive
For Mirovsky, Dalton and a second tenant in another room provide extra income to support her favorite pastime, travel, as well as just the right touch of companionship. As the mother of five now-grown daughters, she`s accustomed to a house filled with activity. ”The girls never stopped talking,” she says. ”You just get so used to it. With the tenants, you can have a conversation; it`s just not a real close one.”
Mirovsky also enjoys the extra measure of security she feels in knowing that there`s usually somebody else around the premises. She believes the tenants enjoy her yard-one of the largest in town-and living in ”more of a home atmosphere.”
Dalton was sold on the idea of living in a private home after he looked at lower-priced apartments he described as ”the pits.” New to the area following a job transfer, he wanted inexpensive housing until he sells his house back in his native Michigan. ”I was impressed with the idea that this lady was renting in her own home,” he says. ”I figured that for that reason, she probably kept the place up.”
Dalton pays $360 per month for a bedroom on the first floor of Mirovsky`s split-level house. He shares with the other tenant a common area on the same floor, which includes a TV, microwave, stove, refrigerator and sink; Mirovsky provides dishes, flatware and pots.
Dalton describes the quarters as ”spartan, but clean,” and his relationship with his landlady, whom he sees about four to five times a week, as ”cordial.” ”It`s fine for now,” says Dalton, who hopes to sell his house and be ready to assume a mortgage of his own within a few months.
”It`s working because I`m flexible,” he says. ”If you`re not a flexible person, there`s going to be more tension in the house. With other people living there, you do want it to be an enjoyable experience.” He does miss the privacy of a house or apartment-”Throwing a party here would be tough”-and being able to putter around the premises a la Bob Vila.
Having it all
Yet other renters in private homes don`t feel that the situation has forced them to give up anything they value. John, a 55-year-old engineer, took a room in a 27-room Evanston mansion 15 years ago after a domestic upset.
”When I saw the ad, I thought there must be something wrong with it. It was probably going to be full of college kids,” he says. ”But it wasn`t. I thought I would just stay here until I found a reason to move, but it just didn`t happen. It became too comfortable.”
