The Tartan

On Jan. 8, Pennsylvania State Representative Joe Ciresi referred House Bill No. 24 to the Committee on Housing and Community Development. The bill, known as the “Off-Campus Student Housing Tenant Rights Act,” would, if enacted, require university students seeking off-campus housing to become educated on their rights as tenants through an online course.

The Tartan discussed the bill with Pennsylvania  State Representative Dan Frankel, a co-sponsor of the bill, to learn more about the motivation behind the bill and what it would mean for university students. 

Frankel represents District 23, an area containing the Carnegie Mellon campus, Squirrel Hill, and other nearby areas. 

“Living off campus presents a great opportunity for young people to live on their own for the first time, but those environments often are in facilities that may not be maintained at an appropriate level with respect to health and safety issues,” Frankel said.

“I think young people who are doing renters’ services for the first time in their lives may not be fully aware of what their rights are as tenants and what the reasonable expectations are from landlords, from neighbors, and from other residents in their building,” he continued.

The bill would mandate that the Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania create an online course that would educate students on their rights as tenants under federal, state, or local law as well as actions students could take when experiencing unsafe housing.

Representative Frankel hoped that the online course would educate students not only on their rights but also on their responsibilities as tenants. He alluded to the collapsing of the roof of a porch after about 30 people were partying on top of it on St. Patrick’s Day.

“This is kind of a mutual responsibility issue of probably a poorly maintained house, but then also students who were not being particularly responsible by congregating and partying on the roof of the porch,” he said.

The bill would create a bill of rights regarding student housing rights along with the updated contact information for the municipal code enforcement office in which the university is located. 

Pennsylvania universities would be responsible for distributing the bill of rights to students seeking off-campus housing.

Among the rights to be included in the bill is the right “to live in a hospitable dwelling, residential privacy, hearing prior to eviction, receive a writ of possession prior to eviction, for an individual with disabilities to request reasonable accommodations, visitors, and utility access.”

The course would only need to be taken once. The student’s institution of higher education would retain records confirming a student’s successful completion of the online course. 

If a student were not to view the course by the end of the first semester, the student’s institution would have a right to charge the student a fine of no more than $50.

The bill has not yet been voted on. “What Representative Ciresi has done is reintroduce this bill, and he did so on Jan. 8, which was the beginning of this new two-year session of the General Assembly.”

After Rep. Ciresi reintroduced the bill, Rep. Frankel signed on to the bill. Once it is introduced, the Speaker of the House refers it to the designated committee, in this case, the Housing and Community Development Committee. 

Then, the majority chairman of the Housing and Community Development Committee would decide if the bill will be brought to a vote within the committee. This committee currently has 38 other bills in committee.

“If it is and it passes out of committee, then the majority leader of the house decides when and if to schedule it for a vote,” Frankel said. 

“It maybe gets to the House floor, maybe it doesn’t and if it does, and it passes, then it is sent over to the Senate, and the Senate then considers it as well. In both of those processes, there are opportunities for members to add amendments to the bill and alter it.”

If passed, the bill would go into effect on Jan. 1 2026 or immediately upon being passed, whichever is later.

Carnegie Mellon University provides students with information regarding off-campus housing, including how to find off-campus housing, information on utilities and residential services, and legal consultations. 

Additionally, Carnegie Mellon offers international students additional information regarding off-campus housing. Interested individuals can visit Carnegie Mellon’s Office of International Education’s (OIE) housing guide as part of their Settling In Guide series.