Career College Central

Subscribe at careercollegecentral.com 33 C ollegiate Housing Services (CHS) is a valued partner of Career College Central and the Imagine America Foundation. We talked with CHS President and Owner David Neal about the services they provide students and schools, how they got started, and what they're focused on thirty years later. Mallory Herrmann: How did CHS get started? David Neal: Collegiate Housing Services (CHS) was actually started under the name Metropolitan Housing in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1988. e company was founded by my business partner, Tim Wade, who was an admissions director with Lincoln Tech in Indy at the time. He and an admissions representative recognized that one of the biggest hurdles in distance recruiting was overcoming the families' anxiety of coordinating housing for their prospective student. So they established Metropolitan Housing to service Lincoln Tech and other colleges in the area that didn't provide on-campus housing facilities. e initial focus, which remains true today, was to provide a student-friendly housing environment for those attending non-traditional colleges. As the company fine-tuned its student housing product and the reputation grew, additional colleges with student housing needs reached out. Some were looking to expand their recruiting reach and recognized the need for an organized housing program as a strategic partner for growth; some were experiencing tarnished reputations, with unmonitored student renters, in the local apartment community and needed a more disciplined approach. In 1991, I joined the company as president and co-owner. Tim and I began operating outside of Indiana as Collegiate Housing Services and merged the student housing operations. Metropolitan Housing remains a separate entity for property acquisition and fee management. MH: How big is your staff and what expertise does your team have? DN: CHS currently has 45 associates in the Indianapolis corporate office and approximately 50 associates that office out of our partner schools. Our leadership team in Indianapolis includes me from an investment banking background, my business partner from a career college admissions background, our CFO from a real estate development background, and our VP of housing operations from a corporate executive stay and hospitality background. Our onsite associates include a wide array of professionals experienced in college student services, apartment management, and customer service. We prioritize residence life and hospitality experience when seeking team members. We seek to provide easier credit qualification, roommate matching, and individual lease liability in apartment settings with furniture and utilities included. e ultimate goal is to ease the anxiety of relocation and to make it easier for a student to start college. We want to have a positive effect on graduation percentages by providing individual lease liability protection and other student-friendly lease terms. MH: What are the biggest struggles that students face when considering housing? DN: Depending on the demographic, credit qualification can sometimes be a challenge. When looking on their own, students oen find that they must demonstrate good credit history and/ or 3–5 times the monthly rent of an entire apartment—from local employment. Multiple utility deposits and furniture logistics are also burdensome. In the CHS housing program each student is on an individual lease, so we qualify credit on only their percentage of the apartment cost. Since furniture and utilities are included, we reduce the need for multiple utility and apartment deposits, as well as furniture moving hassles. Other struggles can include roommate compatibility and the financial impact of a lost roommate (or of one that doesn't pay their share). We try to ease those issues by allowing transfers between CHS housing units and placing students on individual liability leases with financial protection from vacancy loss or roommate non-payment. " We are very thankful for all of our school partners and we are proud to be a part of their success." David Neal, CHS president and co-owner

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