summer intern
 

A friend of mine is coming over to D.C. for summer intern. She is looking for a place to stay for a little over two month. Is there any area in D.C. that she should avoid? Any help would be appreciated.

Travellot

Avoid for what reasons in particular? Poor transportation, expensive housing, proximity to water, unfashionability, property crime, overcommercialization, violent crime, high-rises, distance from services, strict parking enforcement, hippies, unfunny billboards... there are many different things people might want to avoid, and there is no avoiding all of them at once :).

OK. Let me elaborate. There are certain things that a person looking for temporary housing can easily figure out. The cost of housing is, for example, is the first thing a prospect landlord will mention in the advertisement. So my friend was looking for a piece of advice about safety of areas. For example, is Chinatown a high/low crime area? Well, she is just trying to find out if there are places she has to avoid because of (un)safetiness. For all the other things, I am sure she will manage. Thanks.

Chinatown is one of those places where a few blocks in the "wrong" direction would be less than desirable. The area south of Massachusetts Ave NW and west of 6th St NW would be ideal. This area includes the Metro station, the very popular MCI Center indoor arena, and the burgeoning nightlife/restaurant scene around the arena. There are a bunch of huge brand new and desirable apartment/condo blocks around the Mass/NY Ave areas (north of Chinatown and east of the new Convention Center, aka Mt Vernon Triangle) which is generally considered up-and-coming i.e. they overlook abandoned buildings and empty lots. To the east of that is NoMa and, well, let's just not go there yet ;) South of Chinatown is the Penn Quarter which is very desirable with prices to match. So in a gist, the further north you go from the National Mall (Penn Quarter -> Chinatown -> Mt Vernon Triangle -> NoMa), the desirability and prices go down, and the unfortunate inverse relation to crime is true. I wouldn't walk around at night alone north of Mass Ave, 2 blocks from Chinatown. Hope that helps.

Where is she interning? I would think that would have a big part in the decision making. Are there(have there been) other interns at this place? Where did they stay? Did they do group housing?

Single housing for 2 months is not going to be cheap, unless there is some clearing house that does temp housing offered by people who leave the city for 2 months.

How much money to interns make? Enough to take on an apt for 2 months? Have your friend contact the housing depts of the local universities to see if they have any dorm facilities for rent. Maybe the internship program can assist her. Plus she might enjoying living on campus.

May not be part of the formula.

There's always the Bank of Mom and Dad if one's on an unpaid internship. :)

blueDC and everyone else who showed interest, thank you.
Well, she will be making money enough to support herself there. We searched information from local university regarding summer housing. Apparently, universities are more interested in making money from visiting interns than providing affordable housing. They are running $1200-$1400 per month. And 14.5% local housing tax is additional.
Again, thanks for help.

Clearly they know that the market will support such ridiculous pricing; I guess they have more interns being funded by the Bank of Mom & Dad. :rolleyes: Sorry I couldn't help out.

OK, so your friend's priorities seem to be 1) safety from violent crime, and 2) rental costs. The tricky thing about the former is that the lines aren't straight, and like New York and other big cities, most of Washington has improved vastly in the last ten years or so. But at the same time, one of my roommates has been mugged in Georgetown-- twice-- in one of the "best" neighborhoods, as was HHS Secretary Donna Shalala a few years ago. I know other people who have been mugged in Penn Quarter and Pentagon City another two "good areas." Again in that regard, Washington is no different from other big cities.

The "safest" areas lie are generally reckoned to be west of Rock Creek Park. To be extremely crude about delineating the rest, Northwest generally west of about 8th Street and south of K Street, and areas within about 6-8 blocks of the Capitol in the other three quadrants are generally ok. Areas like Shaw, Petworth, Chinatown, Mount Pleasant, and Columbia Heights are gentrifying, but might be sketchy at the edges; I'd also avoid LeDroit Park. Conventional wisdom holds the very worst areas to lie east of the Anacostia River.

The cost factor is trickier. It's not that unusual any more for a 1-bedroom apartment close to Metro to cost $1600/mo. But there are thousands of interns who flock to DC every summer, only a tiny portion of whom have housing provided in their programs. A pretty significant number I'd say stay with local friends or relatives, many in dorms, some sublet, and some stay in hostels or guest houses. You may need a little luck, but a little luck can be stretched pretty far without jeopardizing a great internship experience.

I don't know if this site still works-- I couldn't bring it up this afternoon.
http://cdc.richmond.edu:591/ucan/

University Housing
University housing is predictable, reasonably well-maintained, and near young people, which means it's also an obvious first choice. That said, I $1200-$1400 per month is a slight exaggeration. One of the most popular intern housing locations is George Washington University, since it is big, in a Foggy Bottom (a "safe" part of the city), on the Blue/Orange Lines, and convenient to nightlife. http://gwired.gwu.edu/cllc/Summer/In...sandBuildings/ shows rates from $28 to $39 per night plus tax.

Another option, especially for working in Judiciary Square or the Senate side of Capitol Hill, is Catholic U. Many of the surrounding neighborhoods are sketchy, however. http://conferences.cua.edu/summer/housing.cfm quotes $23-32 plus tax.

Howard University is on the Green Line, and a sometimes overlooked option. Unfortunately their website at http://www.howard.edu/residencelife/...group_hous.htm doesn't provide much detail. The area is gentrifying.

Less convenient off the Red Line is American U, which is way uptown. There is a shuttle from the main campus to the Tenleytown Metro station on the Red Line, and they also have apartments two stations up at Bethesda. Both areas are almost boringly safe. http://www.american.edu/ocl/housing/...n_housing.html says $221/week for singles and $269/week for standard doubles, or $280 and $380 respectively for bedrooms at Park Bethesda.

Georgetown U is a long bus ride just about anywhere except Georgetown. It's a nice campus though. Housing is $1863 for 9 weeks (5/29-8/6), which works out to about $30/night so it's competitive if your friend is there for the duration.

UMD and GMU are a little far from the city to be practical. But if your friend's university has a Washington program, they may offer facilities as well. If you're not a student, sometimes you can stay at the program houses for a higher fee. I know that Boston Univ, Cornell Univ, and Syracuse Univ have dorm facilities off the top of my head.

Sublets
Plenty of DC university students have the good sense to get out of town during intern season, although your prices may not be much better than the dorms. Check the sites for the various student newspapers, but also look for cheap sublets in
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/c...assifieds.html and http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/hhh/ . They will have more ads from and targeted to the younger crowd, as opposed say to the Washington Post or Washington Times.

Guest Houses
I have no experience with any of these. but trying looking around on http://www.dchousing.net/

blueDC and choster, you've got PM. Thanks.

If she'll be travelling from DC area a lot this summer, check out Independence Air's GLIDE college students travel pass. For $249 purchase now, someone 18-25 can travel for free (not incl tax) on T, W and Sat given availability through the summer. Not sure if this will work well or not, but just thought you'd like to know... www.flyi.com

http://www.hillzoo.com/

Their housing section may prove useful.

I did a fellowship in DC for 3 months about 13 years ago and stayed at Thompson-Markward Hall. Right on Capitol Hill, in fact the Library of Congress was right there, nice area. Website is http://www.ywch.org/about.htm I was satisfied with the place for the time I stayed there, the inclusion of meals was a big plus. As long as she doesn't have a boyfriend that intends to visit ;) it's fine for these types of temporary stays.