Many students at De Anza College live at home with their parents and commute to school. However, some students do not have that option and must find housing on their own.

Until April, 2009, students seeking housing could use an online forum De Anza College website, the De Anza Housing Board. As of this year, the page is offline.

The website advises students to check on campus bulletin boards, local newspaper listings and use Craigslist.org to post ads online.

Matt Guevara, a first year student at De Anza, lives with his mother but is puzzled that the online housing forum is no longer available.

“I think it’s bad for the people at De Anza because what if they come from really far, like out of the country? What do they do if they are unfamiliar with Craigslist?” Guevara said.

Dennis Shannakian, administrative assistant at the Office of College Life, said that the online housing service was useful to students searching for a place to live.

“The De Anza Housing site was very successful and we keep getting requests for it to come back,” Shannakian said. “We hope it will.”

Shannakian said, “It’s been down … because of security concerns and this is now the second full quarter without one.”

“The Office of College Life has been wanting to bring back the De Anza Housing Board for some time now, but we cannot do it Without the De Anza Web team.”

The De Anza Web Team, responsible for maintaining De Anza’s website, has not yet been able to get the Housing Board back up. Shannakian also said that the issue came up a number of times at the last De Anza Open House for high school students and their parents in the spring. De Anza President Brian Murphy has also expressed concerns about not having the De Anza Housing Board up at that time.

For now, students who do not live at home are asked to use Craig’s List, and other housing resources to find a place to live near campus. However, for those students who may not be acclimated to American culture, or do not know how to use classified ad’s sites like Craig’s List, there is potential for confusion or worse.

Craigs List’s website has a few guidelines to avoid being scammed while searching for an apartment. One is to deny any wire service payment requests via Western Union  or MoneyGram for security deposits. Second is to avoid dealing with any potential renters who say they are from out of the country. Lastly, be wary of any landlord who refuse to meet with you face-to-face.

The Office of College Life currently does not know when or if the De Anza Housing Board will be back.