Looking for an apartment can be a frustrating hassle. But looking for an apartment at a walking distance from campus, in the middle of the semester, during a cold winter afternoon, can make this hassle even more frustrating.

Bellaire residents recently received a letter from Award Co. Realtors and Property Management saying they need to leave the apartments by April 30, because the owner plans to use the facilities for other purposes.

TCU students were told in an attached letter that they would be allowed to move out May 15, so it wouldn’t interfere with graduation.

TCU owns the land and plans to tear down the condominiums to create 400 parking spots.

The parking lot will alleviate the parking problem, but where are the people who live in Bellaire going to live after the condominium is torn down?

Most Bellaire residents live there because they don’t have a car and it is easy to walk to class.

Apartments within a walking distance of campus are limited, so students will have a hard time finding a new place to live after they move out.

In Kristy Cubstead’s article about the Bellaire apartments Feb. 13, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Don Mills said “TCU has ‘offered to provide campus housing in the summer or next fall if they wish.’”

As stated, it sounds like students won’t have a problem finding a place to live if all they have to do after they move out of Bellaire is move back into the dorms.

However, the article omits the fact that on-campus housing is significantly more expensive than renting an apartment in Bellaire, so it is not an appealing option for students. Besides, students will lose many of their freedoms by moving back to campus.

I was also very disappointed to see that Cubstead’s article ignored how the issue affects the students living in the apartments.

My roommate and I, for example, moved to the Bellaire House Condominium Jan. 13. Before we moved in, we asked the person who was renting us the apartments if it was true the apartments were going to be torn down in June. The employee of Award Realtors and Property Management Co. told us they didn’t know anything about that. So my roommate and I decided to ignore the rumors and move in.

After we received the letter Tuesday, we could not believe it was time to start apartment hunting again. Finding a new place to live won’t be easy. So we’ll have no choice but to move back on campus or start begging our parents for a car.

We all know how that goes. So right now the only option is to start packing.

Laura Vaillard is a junior international communications and psychology major from Cordoba, Argentina.