AUSTIN, Texas — Cole Weinman said he feels he made a mistake by signing a lease with The Rise at West Campus in Downtown Austin.
The University of Texas senior was supposed to move in on Aug. 16, but that date has since been pushed back to Sept. 29. But that only applies to floors five through 20. Those who are scheduled to move in on floors 21 through 23 are set to have a move-in date of Oct. 6, according to emails from the apartment complex provided to KVUE by Weinman.
However, the dates are not something Weinman and others are counting on.
"They were pretty confident when they were selling it to us that it would be ready in time," Weinman said. "They said that since they had control over the whole construction process, that there wouldn't be any delays or issues or anything like that."
The building had not yet been constructed when Weinman signed last October. When summer 2023 rolled around, he began to worry.
In July, Weinman said he got the first email from management about the delay. At the time, there had been no timeline on a scheduled move-in date.
The emails cited the inability to complete construction on time and offered two options to students – either provide them with a hotel stay along with a $50 gift card per day until move-in, or for students to find their own alternative housing and receive a $200 gift card per day until move-in.
Weinman chose the latter.
"I definitely feel like we're getting compensated pretty fairly, given [the] circumstances. But that's mostly just because I have three other people that I can split that expense with," Weinman said.
J.R. Cardenas chose the option to stay at a hotel but said on Sept. 22, he was notified the hotel would not be able to accommodate students any longer and they would be moved to a different hotel even farther from campus.
Cardenas, who is also a UT student, said he luckily has another option through a friend. However, he knows others will be put in a tougher spot.
"People that are at the AC [hotel], which happens to be were most people who chose a hotel can choose to be just because that's really, really close to campus, so for those people, I don't know what they're going to do," Cardenas said.
Both Cardenas and Weinman said they think they are getting compensated fairly, but not having a permanent place to stay has made their situations difficult.
"It's definitely actually disappointing. I mean, I feel kind of like at the time I was ignorant for not knowing the risks involved in signing up for an apartment that wasn't – that was still under construction," Weinman said.
"At this point, I don't know if it's worth the money being homeless, like, the fact that I can't go to my apartment whenever I want to or, you know, I can't sleep in my own bed. And it's been almost a month and a half now that I can't sleep in my own bed," Cardenas added.
KVUE reached out to the leasing office on Sunday, via phone and email, about the situation. A person who answered the phone said no one was available to comment and we would have to wait to speak to a manager on a weekday when one is at the office.
Students said the next update they are supposed to receive about the move-in date is on Sept. 26.