Rae Jamison lived by San Diego State University for 15 years. One day, a “mini-dorm,” a single-family home that is rented out to multiple residents, usually students, at a time, popped up in her neighborhood. One turned into multiple, and Jamison’s house became surrounded by them.

She said intoxicated students frequently urinated and fought on her front lawn. One time, a bottle crashed through her sliding glass door.

“You’re kind of like a captive in your own home,” Jamison said. “It was just a domino effect.”

She grew tired of the noisy and bothersome neighbors, and moved away in 2007 with hopes of a more peaceful life. But now, she’s worried her current neighborhood will take the same path.


Overlook Heights is a small, residential neighborhood overlooking Mission Bay. In some areas, the only thing separating the neighborhood and the University of San Diego’s campus is a gated fence.

Residents say that in the past, the neighborhood has always had a good relationship with USD.

“The college has been an incredibly good neighbor,” Dave McDowell said, who has lived in the area for over three decades.

He said the biggest issue they’ve encountered has been parking space — until September 2019. Over the summer, a group of six male students from USD moved into a house in Overlook Heights.


Immediately, residents were wary. According to Andrew Circo, who grew up and continues to live in the neighborhood, most of its residents consist of second- or third-generation individuals and families.

“We had learned they were going to rent to students, and we were concerned,” Circo said.

According to the neighbors, soon after they moved in, the new residents threw large parties with underage drinking, disruptive noise late into the night, and trash lining the streets of the neighborhood.

During one especially large party after a big win for USD football, seven households called the police. Residents reported seeing and hearing dozens of students climbing over the fence separating USD and the neighborhood, and said cars were lined up the street in a traffic jam as the party continued into the late hours of the morning.


Partiers flood out of a household in Overlook Heights on Sept. 21 after the University of San Diego beat Harvard in a football game. (Brent Koenig)

The college students haven’t had a large party since that night, but residents are still worried about what precedent it might set for the future of the neighborhood.

On the same property, the owner is building a granny flat behind the home. Although officers at a community forum said the landlord said they didn’t plan on renting out that granny flat to students, neighbors aren’t convinced.

"(Mini-dorms are) extremely profitable,” Jamison said. “I can see what’s going to happen.”

“It’s like déjà vu.”


Jack Whisler is one of the USD students who lives in the residence with five others. He doesn’t believe the concerns are valid that the neighborhood will begin to host more mini-dorms.

“You can look on any of the housing market websites, and there’s not enough houses in this neighborhood even open for rent for that to even be a scare to some of these neighbors,” Whisler said.

“You chose to live 50 feet away from a college campus,” he said. “If the moving in of college kids right next to a college campus bothers you, then you might have wanted to look at initially where you wanted to live.”

Whisler also noted that renting to students wasn’t the landlord’s first choice, but that the property had been vacant for about two years.


Brent Koenig, a resident who lives next to the fence that students climbed over after the parties, said that although USD has been good with communicating in the past, that’s not the case now. He said simple requests, such as adding cameras or signs to the gate, have gone unanswered by the university.

“Something changed this semester,” Koenig said. “We just don’t hear back. Nothing visibly has been done at the gate. So far, it’s kind of like radio silence.”

Pamela Gray Payton, the assistant vice president for community, state, and local government relations at USD, disputed those claims.

“USD really prides itself on being an anchor institution and maintaining positive relationships with our communities,” she said. “One of the things that I have heard that is troubling is that the relationship with the neighborhood has changed this semester, and I don’t agree with that.”


She said that USD is not obligated to fulfill all of the neighborhood’s requests. She also emphasized that although the university and police can have conversations with their students living off campus concerning ethics and standards, the university has no control over off-campus activities, unless they are breaking the law — then, it is San Diego Police Department’s responsibility.

“Fairly normal behavior, in the opinion of some of these neighbors, is disruptive behavior,” Payton said. “It’s unacceptable behavior. But (the students’) behavior, for the most part, has been pretty typical behavior and very much law-abiding behavior.”

Payton said it’s unfair to have expectations of college students to behave in a way that is inconsistent with their young age and inexperience.

“At one point or another, you will have your first experience living on your own,” Payton said. “I do think they are being as responsible as I expect them to be, maybe even more, because of this situation.”

