Hollis Sadoff liked a lot of things about NIU. She thought it was friendly to non-traditional students. She was enthusiastic about Northern View Community and its accessibility to student parents like her. So she signed a 12-month lease for a two-bedroom apartment there for herself and her five-year-old son, Eric. Rent was $1,270 a month.

But after not being able to find a job that fit her schedule, her situation has changed.

“I can’t afford it. Because of that, I have to leave early,” said the junior psychology major, who recently put in a request to end her lease three months early.

Sadoff’s story, and others like it, illustrate the choices people must make in the current economy when it comes to housing. And Sadoff says she’s not alone. Some of her fellow Northern View residents are either moving to cheaper apartments or transferring to other schools because they can no longer afford living there, she said.

In October 2008, 150 Northern View apartments were filled. On April 1, that number dropped to 126. Michael Stang, executive director of Housing and Dining, said the decrease is likely a result of students graduating and moving out. “I’d anticipate we’d be very close to occupancy for fall,” he said.

In a recession, the first thing people cut back on are luxury items not habitation, said economics professor Khan Mohabbat. “Housing is usually affected when jobs are lost and there is little hope in regaining them,” he said. In the case of Northern View, students might choose to live somewhere cheaper since “in general, during bad times students try to economize,” Mohabbat said.

Rates for all Northern View apartments are expected to increase by 6 percent for next school year, but that’s not a result of low occupancy or the economy, Stang said, rather it’s because of things like the state’s minimum wage increase. “The economy is challenging for all our students,” he said. “We’re trying to keep the rates as low as possible.”

Sadoff said there isn’t a difference in size between one-and two-bedroom apartments; it’s just an additional room and not worth an extra $500 in her opinion.

“I like the community. I like the people who live here. The staff here is really good. They try to help the best they can,” she said. But it’s just too expensive, she said.

If she can get out of her lease, Sadoff will be moving out of state with her significant other, but if she would have stayed at NIU, she still would have moved out of Northern View.

“If I knew even a year ago what I know now, I think I would’ve looked to see if I could find something cheaper. Either that or I would have looked into other schools more closely,” Sadoff said.