Apartment Choice

The Quarters has experienced construction setbacks leading to minor inconveniences for tenants. By Emily Wangen emily-wangen@uiowa.edu A new off- campus housing complex has experienced a long string of setbacks after 14 months of construction because of the weather, officials say. The Quarters, located near Highway 6 East, houses 880 tenants in 352 apartments, with the vast majority being students at the University of Iowa and Kirkwood Community College .  Tenants have experienced wiring issues , uninstalled washers and dryers, Wi- Fi connectivity issues , and an unfinished clubhouse. Despite the problems, the complex abided by the fire- life safety requirements by the time tenants moved in, said city senior housing inspector Stan Laverman . Leases for The Quarters apartment complex began Aug . 1. RELATED: Luxury apartments coming soon for students Fifteen tenants were left unable to move in for a week while their apartments were being finished and able to pass safety inspections ....

A Long Island research group is urging local governments to consider allowing more rental apartments in private homes, to help cash-strapped homeowners and provide more housing for renters. In a report released Saturday , the Long Island Index outlines the vast differences in the ways Long Island ’s towns, cities and villages deal with so- called accessory apartments , or small units within owner-occupied homes. Most Popular The approaches range from fairly accepting — as in the Town of Babylon, where homeowners can get permits to rent out apartments if they meet certain conditions — to strict, as in the Town of North Hempstead , where such units can only be occupied by the homeowner’s parent or child. Long Island has a patchwork of rules for accessory apartments , which vary so widely that many homeowners fear getting penalized, so they don’t even try to create apartments, even if they want to and might be allowed, said Nancy Rauch Douzinas , publisher of the Index. The Index is a...

A decade after the crash, Shannon Valley housing estate , on the outskirts of Ballaghaderreen, in Co Roscommon, remains unfinished and partly in ruins. Although the number of “ unfinished housing developments ” has fallen sharply since 2010, Shannon Valley is one of hundreds that still dot the country. The Guls: ‘Every day I put rats in the bin’ Fatima Gul says her little brother, Yousaf, doesn’t like the rats. He jumps up on the sofa or the table in the living room when they come into the house. Their parents don’t allow Fatimar, who is 10, or her nine-year-old sister, Maryam, or Yousaf and his twin, Zohra, who are five, to play near the houses on the other side of their green. It’s too close to the rats and the rubble. Shannon Valley “ ghost estate ” outside Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon. Photograph: Simon Carswell" height="349" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3181475!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg" width="620...