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UA will postpone renewing leases at Christopher City

UA Residence Life will postpone renewing leases for the university's family housing complex for about a month until results from a 20-apartment inspection are available, the department's director said Monday.

The UA's family housing complex, located at 3401 N. Columbus Blvd., has drawn criticism recently after Stachybotrys chartarum, considered to be a toxic mold, was found in two apartments in February.

Residence Life Director Jim Van Arsdel said Christopher City Apartment leases are typically renewed in April for the next year.

This year, the lease renewal process will be delayed until May, after a "pilot program" - an inspection of 20 vacant apartments around the complex - can be conducted.

"We need to go out and get a better handle on this before we make a commitment," he said.

Van Arsdel said he will use the results of the inspection - which will be conducted by a consulting firm - to determine what to do next with the complex. The consulting firm has not been picked yet, he said.

Van Arsdel sent a letter, dated March 23, to Christopher City residents informing them of program and subsequent delay of lease renewals.

"We are doing what we are doing because there is some evidence we are going to find mold," Van Arsdel said. "I do no know what we will do - all I know is what we are doing now."

UA Risk Management officials announced in late February that they would conduct a complex-wide inspection to find Stachybotrys chartarum.

Van Arsdel said the cost of the inspection - about $1,500 for each apartment - also added to the decision to organize a pilot program inspection instead of a complex-wide.

He said he originally expected the inspection cost to be about $1,000 for each the complex's 360 apartments.

He added that waiting to renew Christopher City leases will not impact residents greatly.

"This is the kind of thing that is not the end of world," Van Arsdel. "If residents want to come back, they can come back just as easy as signing up in May as singing up in April."

Charla Carr, a former Christopher City resident who claimed that her daughter developed asthma from mold in their apartment, said she is pleased the UA is waiting to renew leases.

"I think it is a good move by the college to hold off renewing leases to be sure of what they're dealing with," said Carr, a history senior.

She said she predicts the pilot inspection will discover more mold than the UA officials expect.

"I would like to see people removed from the problem and then see what they are going to do about it," Carr said.

She added that many residents at Christopher City are still unaware that Stachybotrys chartarum has been found at their apartment complex.

"There is a lot of residents living out there right now who don't know what's going on," she said.