At least two Tufts University students are being forced to move, and hundreds more may face the same fate due to a proposed law that would help the City of Somerville enforce a zoning ordinance that says no more than four unrelated people can live together.

The two students, who asked that their names not be used, will be moving into other apartments or into university dorms.

The new ordinance would require Tufts and other universities and colleges to tell the City where its off-campus students live so that the addresses can be inspected. Hundreds, and perhaps more than 1,000, of Tufts undergraduates could face eviction, since they may be living illegally.

About one-third of the university's undergraduates – 1,825 students – live in apartments and houses in Somerville and Medford, according to Yolanda King, Director of Residential Life at Tufts.

Of 12 students randomly polled by Somerville Neighborhood News, eight lived in apartments that had more than the legal number of roommates for Somerville or Medford. The limit for Medford – only three unrelated people per apartment – is even lower than Somerville's.

Alderman at Large Bill White was not surprised.

"We face a situation where I think it's largely absentee landlords renting to students above the amount that's permitted by law because it generates a lot of money," explained. He helped draft the proposed ordinance, which is being unanimously supported by the board.

"If you're a resident landlord, you're not going to rent to a large number of students above what is permitted by law and you're also not going to allow them to have parties that go until 2 o'clock in the morning," White added. "But the absentee landlords doing that and the students themselves who unfortunately break the law have… create noise problems, are affecting folks in the neighborhood as well."

The proposed ordinance is based on one that recently became law in Boston.

Since the start of school in the fall, that city's Inspectional Services to do about 150 inspections, according to Commissioner

Willam "Buddy" Christopher, Jr., contacted on September 16. The inspections led to 336 citations, some with fines of up to $300.

The four-person limit rule has been on the Somerville books for years, but has never been enforced. The Somerville and Medford roommate limits are listed on the university's housing website, but not prominently.

None of the 12 off-campus students questioned, including junior Albert Wang, knew about the rules.

"That's new information to me," Wang said. "I think that's kind of an arbitrary number."

Wang and his friends decided to move off-campus because they didn't get "a good number" in the housing lottery last spring.

"I know a decent amount of people who live off-campus, especially upper classmen because housing isn't guaranteed for Tufts students in junior and senior years," he said.

Another benefit of moving off-campus is the lower cost, he noted. On average, each of the 12 students polled by SNN said reported paying about $710 per month for rent and utilities. The cost to live on campus at Tufts for one semester is $3300, or about $825 per month.

Wang said that in addition to disagreeing with the roommate limit, he believes that requiring the university to tell city officials where its students live is "too invasive."

"I think what the city should do is send Tufts a letter saying: ‘Hey look, this is a law and you need to let your students be aware that this is a law,'" he said.

White was surprised to learn students were unaware of the roommate limit.

"I think maybe if students really don't know it exists, then maybe it is in part incumbent upon Tufts to make sure that they do know about it," he said.

White added that students are not the targets of the proposed rule.

"What it does is it targets a problem that our city is facing," White said. "It's not just students, but it's students and it's landlords really who are taking advantage of the students."

Asked to comment on the proposed ordinance, Tufts Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler declined to be interviewed, but did send a written statement.

"We understand that an ordinance is under consideration by the city and are in the process of learning more about the proposed measure," the statement read. "We are happy to work with the city where safety or neighborhood quality of life issues are concerned."

Currently, the board's Legislative Matters Committee is considering the ordinance. It could pass as soon as this fall.