The possibility of moving back into their fraternity house may be on the horizon for the 21 members of the Delta Upsilon (DU) fraternity who have been without housing since the City of Somerville condemned their house following building inspections in July.
Extensive renovations to the house began in mid-August, and are scheduled to be done by Monday. Brothers should be able to return to their house at the beginning of next week pending the completion of the final building modifications and the approval of the city health inspectors and building inspectors, according to DU Vice President of Finance Anthony Ferlan, a junior.
On July 12, Somerville evicted the brothers from the house, which is owned by the fraternity's national alumni association, after they failed a city inspection to renew their lodging license. The brothers living at the house at the time were forced to find alternative accommodations, as were the brothers planning to move in at the start of the fall semester, Ferlan said.
DU President Thomas Castle, a junior, said that finding temporary housing has been challenging, particularly because other Tufts fraternities, including Sigma Phi Epsilon, are facing similar housing shortage challenges and have been soliciting the help of the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife).
"It's been tough," Castle said. "I know ResLife can't supply housing to everyone. I know a lot of back-up housing is full, so ResLife hasn't been able to help out too much, which is understandable."
According to Yolanda King, director of ResLife, only two brothers have approached the University about finding alternative housing. The fraternity itself, however, did not officially approach ResLife.
"As the students have come in to request temporary housing, we have been meeting their needs," King said.
Renovations began last month to bring the house up to code with Somerville regulations and included changes to the fire escapes, the handrails on stairs and the gutter system, according to Castle. One of the biggest tasks was to fix water leakage in the basement, which had begun rotting the wood, he added.
The remaining building modifications to be made include placing full window screens in every window and replacing heating unit covers, which Ferlan expects to be done by Monday.
Construction has taken several weeks longer than expected and surpassed original cost estimates by $10,000, acquiring a final price tag of $70,000, Castle said.
Somerville regulations require a building owner to obtain signatures from the building inspector, the health inspector, the fire inspector, the electrical inspector and the Somerville Police Department in order to renew a lodging license, according to Ferlan.
DU has had to make unprecedented modifications to the house this year due to what Ferlan considers stricter enforcement of the housing code by the city.
"It seemed like, from what I've heard, the City of Somerville is cracking down hard on fraternities and sororities so their houses can't get away with as much stuff as they have in the past," Ferlan said.
He added that the fraternity had, however, understood that major renovations were going to be needed.
"We had a lot of issues with the house," he said, adding that the structure is over 100 years old and has not had any major renovations in the last 10 years.
"It was expected that we needed to do the renovations; we just didn't think it was going to take us this long to get them in," Ferlan said.
