College Houses Co-operatives - Pearl St Co-op & Member Co-ops

UT Austin Dallas Office Counselor Blake told me to avoid it because of the drugs problem they had but I was poor and got enticed by the rent price and labor policy of College Houses Co-ops. I lived at Pearl St Co-op for 2 years.

There is high level of drug use at the co-ops. I tried my best to change the drug culture but they made me pay for that. Most of the students in their co-ops dont object to drug use. It is a major problem there. Police raided the place 3 times in 1 year. That is how big of a problem it is there.

The labor policy sounds good except that the hardworking residents get all the difficult labor. Those who curry favor the “Labor Czar” get the easy labor chores. Many of the residents are lazy and dont help in upkeeping the co-ops. If you want an education, you should take Blake’s advice and stay away from College Houses.

Food is just edible. The kitchen is always dirty. They talk big on community but most of them just dont care how dirty the co-op is. It is not worth the price you pay for them. If you care about your education, dont stay at College Houses co-ops.

I stay at College Houses for more than 2 years and it’s honestly the best decision I made in my life. Co-op is not for everyone and each house has a personality/culture of its own. Pearl and 21st Co-op are notorious for being loud, messy, and full of drug. However other co-op such as Halstead, Laurel, Helios, Nueces, Opsis… are all tidy and clean, none of them ever get visit from the police or cause problems. There are also co-op exclusively for graduate students. Lots of time people change house because they didn’t like the culture, perhaps you should have done that.

But all in all, co-op isn’t for everyone, and to say it’s not worth the price is absolutely not true.