Renter’s Education with Adrienne Solenberger 
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Matt: Welcome to Bellingham Technical College’s Money$marts Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Benoit and each episode we will talk with BTC students, staff, community professionals and financial experts about financial literacy and wellness in order to help listeners navigate resources in the community and empower themselves, financially. We’re here today with Adrienne Solenberger who is a Landlord Liaison for the Opportunity Council. How are you doing?
Adrienne: I’m good, thank you.
Matt: Excellent. So tell me about your work with Opportunity Council. What does a Landlord Liaison do?
Adrienne: Excellent question and very confusing. I spend a lot of time, basically trying to acquire as many affordable housing opportunities for people within the community that I can. Beit negotiating rents with landlords, helping people maintain current housing, or helping people apply and search for housing. 
Matt: Now in a previous episode of this podcast, we interviewed Anastasia Polda about the Financial Literacy and Renter’s Education classes, also known as FLARE classes at the Opportunity Council. I understand you also have a role in these classes?
Adrienne: I do. I help teach some of the renter’s education portion of that class. I basically go in and kind of give a little break down of some of the landlord tenant rights that people may or may not be aware of and I also kind of help answer whatever questions may come up with their current housing experiences. 
Matt: Now, this may be kind of an obvious question because for a lot of people rent takes up such a large percentage of their income. But why do you think it’s important that renter’s education be included in financial literacy classes?
Adrienne: Well, if anyone is planning on living in Whatcom County, and not eating just bread and water then they definitely have to be able to budget finances accordingly. Rents are exceptionally high here. So, kind of figuring out how you’re going to budget and prepare and plan for that is important.
Matt: For sure. Now, can you recall a time in your life where personally, renter’s education either was important, or if you didn’t have it that it would have been useful for you?
Adrienne: Yeah, definitely. I started renting when I was 17 years old in rural Pennsylvania. And I don’t think I knew a lot of my rights. Early on as a renter I ran into experiences such as, the ceiling falling in in my bedroom. 
Matt: Woah.
Adrienne: And you know, when you’re in a year lease and the landlord doesn’t want to fix something like that…
Matt: Wait, the landlord didn’t want to fix something like that?
Adrienne: Right? It’s not uncommon, actually! Still to this day. 
Matt: Wow!
Adrienne: I just think that I would have loved to have known back then what my options would have been.
Matt: Yeah, so you just had a hole in your ceiling?
Adrienne: Yeah, well I ended up figuring out – I ended up, maybe why I got into this line of work and didn’t know it back at 17 was researching my rights and finding out that I could get out of my lease.
Matt: Yeah. I was going to say, for that… that’s…wow!
Adrienne: But when you’re 17 it’s not something, you’re like “oh, what do I do?”
Matt: Yeah. So, from what you’ve seen, how useful has it been for students to attend the FLARE classes? What have they gotten out of it? Have you seen some people really benefit from this?
Adrienne: Well, I think it’s important to mention that in addition to FLARE, I teach and run Housing Lab which is a weekly, I want to call it a workshop, where people come in Tuesdays ten to noon and they can have any part of their housing – support with any part of their housing. So that could be working on developing a virtual renter’s portfolio so that when they’re ready to go apply for a unit to rent, with our without a roommate, they have all of their information in one place. I also mediate landlord-tenant conflict or roommate conflict, if that makes sense. So we’re kind of like a resource for any of those kinds of discussions that come up around how to get in or maintain housing, right. Success, yes. I’ve seen more than 20 unduplicated people per week that come into housing lab and we are able to house a very fortunate number of those as well. Or maintain their housing, so again, preventing homelessness.
Matt: For housing lab, does it require that people sign up or can – is it kind of just a walk-in service?
Adrienne: It’s a walk-in service. You don’t have to be there from ten to noon either. You can, you kind of come in, why try to meet with people one-on-one, first-come sort of first-serve. But we usually get through everyone and then we invite people back reoccurring until their housing issue is resolved. 
Matt: Is there a size limit on the class or each session? As far as capacity?
Adrienne: No, not exactly. I have ten laptops, stations that we use so we’re usually able to cycle through ten, around ten folk at a time. But we, like I said, we have about 20 to 25 that come per week an so we are able to get to see everyone.
Matt: Some of the main takeaways from the sessions in FLARE classes or even in housing lab that, you know, focusing on renter’s education, what are probably the top three primary things you want people to take away from, from those classes?
Adrienne: I think one, be prepared to be a renter, so having some financial plan in place and understanding the reality of what renting is going to look like in Whatcom county, the rents are not, everyone wants their own studio, wants their own one-bedroom and it’s really becoming unrealistic. There’s a shortage of those in general, right? So be financially aware of what you’re getting into. Really understand for yourself and out of respect for your landlord what the terms of your lease are going to be and what your obligations are going to be and I think then more specifically, understand the consequences should you choose to make poor rental decisions. So, if you choose to damage a unit or let yourself get into an eviction situation, because you’re in a competitive rental market that will impact you forever. And kind of drop your options even more.
Matt: So, what kind of advice would you give to any college students listening to this, as far as what their rights as renters are?
Adrienne: Rights and responsibilities I would say. I think that they need to, from what I’ve heard from a lot of students anyway is be good at documenting what the condition of the unit is before you move in. So I would recommend taking pictures and storing pictures via The Cloud or something like that or video is becoming really popular now. Demonstrating everything in writing when you’ve made a maintenance request or request when something has gone wrong. Be prepared to take financial responsibility for any damages that you may cause on your own. And be aware of the fact that a landlord has to respond to you within 20 days after you hand in your keys, for either why your deposit is being held, what those costs are going to be, or a return of your deposit in full and/or whatever may be left over after reasonable charges.
Matt: Now obviously, with the way rents can become extremely exorbitant, financial barriers are obviously, probably chief among the barriers clients face when they rent or looking to rent here in Bellingham or Whatcom County. What are some of the other barriers that they might encounter?
 Adrienne: I mean, we see a lot of criminal history, some of it is old out dated criminal history and so we work with helping them write letters of explanation. So, at some point or another in people’s lives, they may have made some sort of mistake and unfortunately that mistake as a charge on paper doesn’t tell the whole story. I think of what really a person is or what happened. So we kind of teach people to know how to tell their part of a story maybe. So, credit is another barrier and especially when you’re a student starting out – demonstrating good credit. I have a lot of conversations to help people learn how to increase credit. Even just getting a prepaid credit card to begin stuff like that. Or what other ways can you be creative to show that you have good credit standing. Like, can you provide evidence that you’ve paid your cellphone bill for example, routinely. Because that’s one of the things that people are most likely to always pay because everyone needs their phone, right? 
Matt: Right.
Adrienne: Again, I think it’s just income and affordability is probably the number one barrier ever body is seeing right now. And roommating is not the easiest thing in the world either. And so another service that we help provide is roommating contracts. When you’re entering into that roommating relationship people can have that pre conversation about what responsibilities and house rules are we going to look like. So that maybe we less conflict. Or how are we going to solve that conflict.
Matt: Yeah. I guess in your experience what are some of the – when people come to the roommate sessions, what are some of the more common issues that they find? I imagine there’s a lot of odd couple type of conflicts. 
Adrienne: Right? It’s always a conversation on who’s going to pay utilities. We hope that people can find themselves in a situation where each person’s name is on the lease. Therefor each person has financial accountability and somebody doesn’t just bail out and leave someone else with the debt or rent or the deposit or whatever the case may be. Food is another big topic of contention. You took my food kind of resource, things like that. And then partners. If I bring a partner in to live with me to contribute for my part of the rent, other people in the household may not see that as fair because they’re there using the utilities. So those are, I think the big top three.
Matt: So, in some cases, with renting someone may need a co-signer on a lease. But obviously, some people moving here, they might be moving here alone they might not have somebody to co-sign on that lease. So, if they’re in that situation, what would you recommend they do?
Adrienne: Right, each property management company or landlord is going to have their own rental criteria of which can be a barrier. The three times the rent expectation is unrealistic in Whatcom County. There are people owning their homes that don’t even make three times their mortgage amount. Which is about the same amount as rent right now. So, I mean, I would recommend trying to co-house, you know, if able with someone that has substantial enough credit history or similar enough credit history and rental history as you do. Again, I go back to the roommating thing again, there’s a lot of people out there looking for roommates. There are also a good number of property management companies in Whatcom County that understand that this is very much a student driven economy. And so many of them are not looking for that three times the rent amount and not necessarily requiring a cosigner. So have your best foot forward. Do your best to have good credit. Do you best to report what you might have in terms of rental history, even if it was “I used to rent a room consistently from Aunty Margaret and paid her $300.” That should count, right? Those efforts. So, do your best, have some income, demonstrating a budget maybe of what you have coming in as grants, if you use grants to help pay rent. That that’s kind of set aside, currently in a bank and budgeted out. Some people will offer to pay three months of rent at a time with their budget, I mean, with their student grants.
Matt: So, I understand that a common that seems to be happening more and more, I don’t know how common it is around here, but does communal living type situations, not just among people of the same age but among people of varying demographics. So in other words having someone who’s elderly and then also having part of a house be rented out to someone who’s younger and can possibly help that older person with certain things.
Adrienne: Yeah. That’s excellent. It’s interesting because there are models of this happening now in LA, Chicago, New York, et cetera. And about two years ago in Bellingham it was projected that our elders in our community would be displaced by the housing market rush, so to speak. So folks on fixed retirement income or widows and widowers are kind of actually losing housing. I see a lot of them coming into housing lab looking for – to rent a room or something so they don’t have to give up their family home or event the family trailer that they had with their partner before they passed. So it’s an excellent idea and an excellent thing. Evidence based research and statistics have really pointed to how beneficial that is to being able to bring in a student, let’s give as an example, that can maybe even offset, one even probably the cost of living to the elder but two is able to help with maintaining part of that property. Maintenance  just like mowing the lawn, maybe it’s simple things like taking out the trash, and things like that. So it’s an excellent way to look at housing and an excellent way to bring together some generational living.  
Matt: Obviously, for a lot of people you’re either renting through a property management company or you’re renting from an individual land lord. And, I guess, what are some of the issues. What are the biggest differences between renting between property management vs. and individual, in your opinion?  
Adrienne: That’s a great – I think you’ll see – a great common question. You’ll see things more formal with a property management kind of situation. And because often times they have a larger portfolio of rental complexes they’re managing they have less tolerance and patience to navigate some of the conflict and issue. And they’re not going to go investigate who was really slamming the door or who had a kegger at two in the morning that disturbed the peace. They’re just going to write a notice, often, and have you out, right? So I think “ma & pa” landlords are maybe more flexible in that capacity. However, they may also be undereducated in their responsibilities as a landlord. I do work with them a lot to let them know what their responsibilities are. The consequences, often times for a property management companies, they will often have a real estate license, so if they are in violation of landlord-tenant law or fair housing, the consequence to there possibly being a loss of license or fine is more significant. So, I think either way there’s definitely pros and cons.
Matt: If people want to check out whether it be housing lab or getting in on the FLARE classes or any of the other stuff you’re a part of at Opportunity Council – where should they start?
Adienne: They can come into the Opportunity Council. My office specifically is at 1111 Cornwall Avenue. I’m there Monday through Friday, generally from 8am to 4:30pm. Housing lab is every Tuesday of the week at 625 Cornwall Avenue ten to noon. They can also contact me via phone or one of our housing advocates and that number is 360-255-2091 extension 136. 
Matt: Excellent, alright. Is there anything else you wanted to add that we haven’t already touched on when it comes to general advice about renting, especially for students who are either here at BTC, Whatcom, Western, wherever they may be? 
Adrienne: No, I would say come into Housing Lab if you have any questions. And if you need help roommating or help developing a roommate contract or something like that then come by. Free advice, you don’t have to pay for the service. And it’s kind of a good way to at least have some simple, seemingly simple, questions answered.
Matt: Excellent. Well alright Adrienne, thank you so much for being here today on the podcast.
Adienne: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Matt: Thanks for listening to this episode of the BTC Money$marts podcast, be sure to check out all our episodes on the BTC website. They’re loaded with stories, tips, tricks and strategies for financial literacy. This podcast is produced by Cheryl Kennedy with music courtesy of Bensound.com. I’m Matt Benoit, see you next time!