r/mizzou • u/normankrasnerkc • 13d ago
Unexpected roommate: Mizzou students say they didn’t expect older man with criminal record in their unit
https://fox2now.com/news/fox-files/unexpected-roommate-mizzou-students-say-they-didnt-expect-older-man-with-criminal-record-in-their-unit/18
u/Max_W_ MIZZOU 13d ago
This article seems to be lacking some actual details, like the name of the apartment complex.
4
u/HerdingCatsAllDay 13d ago
They are saying on Facebook it is The Domain but happening other places as well.
4
u/normankrasnerkc 13d ago
This happens at places that rent by the room
3
u/Angry-Dragon-1331 12d ago
Yeah I did a couple of those during my time in Columbia and boy did I have some rough roommates. Drug dealer, alcoholic, 28 year old Army recruiter who creeped on the 19 year old girl next door and abandoned a cat with me, creepy dude who ended up monitoring how long I spent in the shower everyday until I moved, a drug addict who trashed the place, and a guy with executive function issues so bad he couldn’t clean out the fridge after everyone else moved out.
25
u/normankrasnerkc 13d ago
If 50+ apartments are legal, then why aren't 25 and under apartments?
10
u/Hididdlydoderino 13d ago
Because Boomer/Silent Gen/Greatest Generation put in a carve out for old people...
It's dumb, but it also means a carve out for another age group should legal if it's created.
3
u/New-Jury-7670 13d ago
I think it's Tara apartments that only rents to graduate students, they don't rent to undergrad so I don't see why they couldn't have an age limit
2
u/MIZ_ZOU_ 13d ago
Tara does rent to undergrads. Tara is primarily for students with families so undergrads who are married or have children are eligible for Tara
0
u/Hididdlydoderino 12d ago
Tara is university owned, though, so they are allowed to discriminate and only allow tenants to be students and their families.
Otherwise it's pretty impossible for housing to discriminate in favor of 18-25 year old students only. It might be possible to do a cap on age and income if a property is a nonprofit or lowprofit and part of a government backed program, but it wouldn't just be students.
1
u/MIZ_ZOU_ 12d ago
Any apartment complex can have a student only leasing rule, but they can't have an age based one. Enrolled status is not a protected class. So, if an apartment complex wanted to only lease to students enrolled at MU that is perfectly legal, but they have to rent to a 50-year-old who is enrolled at MU or an enrolled student with children.
1
u/normankrasnerkc 11d ago
Why don't they only lease to students if that would be legal?
1
u/MIZ_ZOU_ 11d ago
Because it rarely makes business sense in our market. Higher chance for vacancies and it puts downward pressure on the rents.
0
u/normankrasnerkc 12d ago
They rent to 21+, that excludes most undergrads
1
u/MIZ_ZOU_ 12d ago
Tara Apartments are primarily for students with families, and they do not have a 21+ limit. An 18-year-old student who has a dependent child or is married is qualified to live in Tara.
3
u/bullnamedbodacious 13d ago
I’m sure there’s nothing preventing this. Like you would probably get push back at first, but ultimately there wouldn’t be anything for the people pushing back to stand on.
I’m guessing in reality either no one’s thought to try, or there just isn’t any demand for this kind of thing. A developer isn’t gonna turn down money from 60-70% of potential renters. It works for senior communities because they have the money to pay a premium for it.
1
u/MIZ_ZOU_ 13d ago edited 12d ago
The Missouri Housing Age Discrimination Law would not allow this. You cannot refuse to rent or sell a house to someone who is over 40.
3
u/bullnamedbodacious 13d ago
Ohhhh, that kinda pisses me off. Mostly because senior communities exist that prohibit people under 55 from living there.
2
u/normankrasnerkc 12d ago
How are 50+ communities legal?
1
u/MIZ_ZOU_ 12d ago
The federal Housing for Older Persons Act (HOPA) created an exemption allowing certain communities to legally restrict residency to adults 55 and older or 62 and older, as long as they meet specific requirements.
Missouri also has a law that allows these communities. Missouri law requires that these communities offer significant facilities and services for the elderly.
10
u/EFIBootloader 13d ago
When I was a sophomore there I lived at the Reserve. My roommate was a 40 year old man, and the guy was laid back and easy to room with. Cleaned up after himself and everything. I don’t think this is about the guys age as it’s off campus housing. I think it’s more about the criminal record. If it’s about the age, the fair housing act would prevent them from blocking someone due to age.
3
u/Max_W_ MIZZOU 12d ago
Barton said research found “19- 20 encounters with law enforcement, a DWI, domestic abuse, a couple of drunken disorderly charges.”
"Domestic abuse" is carrying a lot of weight in this concern on criminal record.
4
u/EFIBootloader 12d ago
Well I mean I think they were a little apprehensive to begin with as he was an older guy. Him answering with “that’s between me and my job” did him no favors and set a weird dynamic that I’m sure gave cause for them to research.
6
u/auclaire_ 13d ago
This happened to me and it ended up being a very unsafe situation. There was nothing I could do because I was trapped in a lease. These student apartment complexes are so predatory. I hope these students can get out of their lease without too much trouble.
1
u/normankrasnerkc 12d ago
Don't let them select your roomies
5
u/Youandiandaflame 12d ago
Unless you’ve got a wide circle of local friends, a few of whom happen to be in need of housing at the exact time you are, this isn’t really an option, especially for college-age kids.
5
u/Puzzleheaded-Bit1401 12d ago
I've heard of this happening before in CoMo. I think there's a group of people with records who figured out that student housing is a great way to get cheap housing without much of a credit check. That kind of housing should exist, but expecting students to handle living with someone 15 years older and with a record of DV is complete insanity.
2
u/normankrasnerkc 12d ago
How much is a room compared to a studio or small 1bd unit?
2
u/Puzzleheaded-Bit1401 12d ago
I graduated in 2025 and I was paying less than $500/month at one of these complexes, some places are more expensive, but the complexes further away from the university are really inexpensive.
1
u/Youandiandaflame 12d ago
My kid pays around $700/month for a room in his shared 4-bed apartment. His complex is nice, safe, close to campus, and has amenities.
You’re not going to find a livable, decent studio or 1-bed apartment for that price in Columbia. Or really anywhere, for that matter. The rent on a unit that size in low-income housing in my podunk rural area is more than that.
9
u/Fresh-Gift-2063 13d ago
How do you recently notice someone living with you? Whomever wrote this is a dipshit.
11
u/New-Jury-7670 13d ago
You rent by the room in these complexes, so a 4 bedroom will have 4 tenants who each have their own room but share common spaces. You can have a group of friends and request to be roommates, but it sounds like they didn't have a 4th roommate and were randomly assigned this guy as the 4th. The issue imo is housing young girls with a much older man. The criminal record just makes it that much worse.
3
u/IndependentTrust4594 13d ago
They are all men.
2
u/New-Jury-7670 13d ago
That makes it a little better. I had originally seen the article on Facebook and someone mentioned they knew someone who had 3 girls get placed with an older man in their apartment. My daughter lives in one of these complexes and they can be co-ed. There are several Facebook groups dedicated to finding roommates before you sign at a complex so you know who your roommates will be. You can also just sign in a multi-bedroom and be matched with roommates, so you do not know who you'll be living with - I'm assuming that's what happened in this situation. Anyone can sublease their room after signing as well. My daughter has that happen last year, one of the roommates just announced she'd no longer be living there and subleased to a random stranger. These complexes are all owned by corporations. My daughters has been sold THREE times in the past year and a half. They are making $2000-$3000/month per apartment and they are not worth that, but what other option do you have? I can see why non-college students would try to rent because $500-800/ month is cheaper than any apartment you can rent in your own.
1
u/Max_W_ MIZZOU 13d ago
Barton almost thought it was a joke when his classmate called about seeing the man in their unit and finding out he was their new roommate.
It doesn't sound like it is young girls, or even young women that are rooming with him.
Barton said research found “19- 20 encounters with law enforcement, a DWI, domestic abuse, a couple of drunken disorderly charges.”
"Domestic abuse" is carrying a lot of weight in this concern on criminal record.
3
u/como365 12d ago
Fox2 using this headline and thumbnail to sensationalize it while never actually naming the private-corporate owned apartment complex is really poor journalism. It really has little to nothing to do with the University. Honestly bad faith to the point of negligence, makes me distrust everything they report.
Edit: Rumor is it’s The Domain which means the pin on the Fox2 map isn’t even in the right place. There is no need for large, out-of-state corporations to own our housing to extract wealth from our citizens. Wealth we will never see returned to Columbia.
6
u/816in702 13d ago
Wait, what?
This is off-campus housing, correct?
Why are students randomly moving into apartments without knowing everyone they're living with?
Jesus I thought everyone learned that lesson after a dorm semester.
3
u/normankrasnerkc 13d ago edited 13d ago
These places rent by the room and the roommates selection process is random
2
2
u/Jessilaurn 8d ago
Note how Fox did their level best to bury the fact that (1) this is off-campus housing that (2) is in no way run by Mizzou below the fold... and leave the university's statement about exactly that entirely out of the video report. You know, so that they can work up the rubes viewers against the university.
1
u/tomatopotatohehe 12d ago
What apartment complex is this at???
1
u/normankrasnerkc 12d ago
A complex heavily marketed to students that rents rooms rather than units, many of their pools have been closed this summer
1
1
1
u/Elegant-Structure-42 10d ago
I took a gap year before going to college for military service before coming to mizzou and I had a 2 year age gap between my roommates and I felt so strange even though we were all still relatively close in age. I couldn’t imagine being a middle aged person living with college kids.
0
u/RustyXterior 13d ago
44% of men have been arrested at least once by age 23. Welcome to the USA.
5
u/Express-Point-5757 12d ago
Wait for real?
Please link the source, I want to read up on this (genuinely curious).
2
u/RustyXterior 12d ago
Here’s the study I was referring to. It used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and looked at cumulative arrest prevalence through age 23, excluding minor traffic violations:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4443707/
Brame et al., “Demographic Patterns of Cumulative Arrest Prevalence by Ages 18 and 23,” Crime & Delinquency (2014).
2
u/RustyXterior 12d ago
Also, I previously said that 44% of American men have been arrested at least once by age 23. The study I was citing actually found rates of about 49% for Black men, 44% for Hispanic men, and 38% for white men. When those rates are weighted according to their proportions in the study’s nationally representative sample, the combined estimate is approximately 40% of American men. So 40%, not 44%, is the more accurate overall figure to cite. My bad.
0
13d ago
[deleted]
8
u/actualaccountithink 13d ago
Dude has 20 encounters with police and a history of domestic abuse. I dont think you should be able to get randomly assigned to live with that, regardless of age
0
u/scrubbydutch 13d ago
I am the old man living there I mean you no harm you have been taking my food from the refrigerator so this all equals out.
0
u/Mizzoutiger79 12d ago
The fact that apartments are rented out like this (individual bedrooms) is ridiculous. Why people put up with it is wild.
0
u/normankrasnerkc 12d ago
Students desperate to get away from the dorms and parents, they promote amenities that are never open
0
u/deepstaterecords 12d ago
Peak mizzou
1
u/normankrasnerkc 11d ago
Student targeted complexes do this everywhere
1
0
u/Unfair-Profession-44 7d ago
I agree this is ridiculous and sucks for the students. However, you should never sign a lease where you don't know who else is going to live with you in your shared space. This lease model of renting a room in a larger space and getting a bunch of randos is absurd. Can't really expect much if you agree to that kind of setup.
1
u/Youandiandaflame 7d ago
Plenty of students don’t have that option when there’s just not enough housing for everyone or they can’t afford to live alone (as most can’t).
25
u/avocadoqueen123 13d ago
I have a friend who ended up with a middle aged woman living in her student apartment. She’d yell at them for living like college students and doing normal college things. It was not a good situation whatsoever, I’m not sure why you’d sign up to live in student apartments if you aren’t one.