John Hershey has a board in his office marking all the student rental properties near St. Thomas. (Hannah Anderson/TommieMedia)

Even though the St. Paul Housing Moratorium passed in late August, it might not affect many St. Thomas students.

According to the city council minutes, the moratorium only affects how developers decide to rent out the homes they own and prospective homes they’d potentially buy.

St. Thomas Neighborhood Liaison John Hershey said it limits developers’ ability to convert homesteads into non-residential homesteads for one year.

“If that is an owner-occupied property, and I wanted to purchase it and convert it into a rental property, converted from homestead to residential non-homestead, then I’m allowed to rent it out,” Hershey said. “But I can only rent it out to one person who’s not related to me.”

He said there is no way to enforce the moratorium.

“It would only happen by hearsay, ‘Hey, that house just got purchased. Yeah, I heard a parent bought it,’” Hershey said. “Then that person who noticed that would have to go to the city and say, ‘Hey, go check that out.’”

He also said it is hard to define a student residence.

“We could say no more student rentals,” Hershey said. “But how do we know what a student rental is? I don’t think it’s definable.”

Hershey said most homes won’t be affected at all.

“It doesn’t affect 350 to 400 houses that I know about right here,” Hershey said. “They are exempt, and they would be grandfathered with whatever happens.”

Junior Katie Matejka said she had not heard about the housing moratorium but heard a neighbor yelling at a student when she came back from Target.

“We passed a scene where there was actually a guy who lived there and was screaming at these kids, like get off my property, just swearing,” Matejka said. “I didn’t even know what the situation was, but his neighbors were college kids, and he was just freaking out.”

Junior Leah Olson said neighbors should just accept where they live, which is in a college neighborhood.

“College students drink. People throw up. They litter, and that’s just what they do. That’s what you’re signing up for when you live next to campus,” Olson said. “Sometimes I’m thinking, well this could be a family’s house. But at the same time I’m also thinking, you chose to live here.”

Hershey said he recorded September as the heaviest complaint month in 2010, where 56 out of the 87 complaints were alcohol-related, and cops are cracking down.

“If you’re walking on Marshall with an open container and wobbling they’re going to stop you and ask for an ID,” he said.

Hershey said he hears both sides, and the tension can be settled if students make an effort to be polite to the families who have put their “lifetime investments” in their homes.

“You go to a Catholic institution, and you don’t love your neighbor,” he said. “Try to be considerate. The world would be a better place if people were more considerate.”

The St. Paul City Council will have a public hearing to work more on the issue at the end of October.

Hannah Anderson can be reached at ande5385@stthomas.edu.