U-District Student Housing: Kelsey Apartments — Local services in Seattle

I lived here for two years. In the beginning of the year there were some people who didn’t live in the building who came in and wrote some NSFW on the door of my apartment and the door next to me but no one else’s door. I called maintenance and they painted over it within the next week. There was also a theft soon after that, which happened on a ground floor apartment, but I heard it was because the door was unlocked and someone was in the living room so the burglar couldn’t really steal and left. After this,management hired a nighttime security guard who stayed for a week.The good thing about this apartment is the lease is by the room so you don’t need to worry about finding replacement roommates. The security in this place is not much, with only a door that needs a code to open to the apartment complex. Packages only started getting stolen the second year I lived there, I think it was one of the residents. The packages were left in the mailroom which was right by the entrance, but the mailboxes have a key and the mail was never stolen. As long as you are home when your package is delivered it won’t get stolen, since you can go grab it immediately. The maintenance is fast. The management is ok. Sometimes they would charge unnecessary cleaning fees, but that was only when my lease ended. I noticed that if I needed to communicate clearly/argue with management I had to get my parents involved. The apartment was quiet most of the time for being in the U district, but was usually loud on Friday or Saturday nights because of parties, and management doesn’t do anything. I would say that most of my experience here was dependent on residents. The first year was different from the second year. I would also suggest do not get a ground floor apartment. Laundry is on the first floor and usually has washers and dryers available on the weekdays rather than the weekends. The kitchen has modern appliances and is in good shape. Mold in the windowsill was an issue, but as long as you keep the windows open it didn’t occur. The heater is good, and there is one in each room but there is no AC since it is Seattle. The rooms are small. I would say the apartment itself was somewhat safe, because I never had my apartment broken into the whole two years I lived there. There also a lock on the bedroom door with a key. Location is everything. This apartment is close to the 65 bus stop, and is only a ten minute walk from campus, five minute walk to Trader Joe’s, and seven minute walk to Sharetea. Elevator is broken sometimes, I used the stairs mostly. I stayed in a three bedroom apartment with two baths, so bathroom time was not an issue. If you do have a bathroom with a glass door I suggest you don’t use it, or make sure it is replaced, because it can shatter. I used the bathroom with a shower curtain. Also, if you are leaving after a year and are gone in the summer, empty your room before August 31, because they will come in your room and empty it for the next tenant. They don’t let you break your lease but you can relet. Remember that almost all the residents are students, so it’s mostly your peers. Overall, okay experience for living in the U district. I would only worry about living here because you don’t know what kind of issues you may have to face, but they are...

The apartments themselves are not bad. The rooms are very small and only fit a bed and small desk. However, the building is poorly maintained and rarely cleaned. The laundry room is decent but often dirty. Management is very unprofessional, unorganized, and rude. I was informed three days before move-in that I would be split up from the original group I was living with, giving us no time to reorganize our plans or have a chance to get out of the situation, thus leading to two of my friends living with two other random people and me and another friend living with two other people. If you choose to live here, know they have the power to, and will, split you up. I have been very disappointed with management, because every time I call with questions, without fail, I am met with rude service and passive aggressive comments. Management further promises residents many things (i.e. a new door and lock replacement after the complex kept being broken into and people were stolen from, key cards to enter the buildings at the beginning of the year, etc.) but have consistently not delivered on these notions. I was promised to be second on a list for parking (behind one of my roommates) at the beginning of May. I checked with management at the beginning of June whether I was still on the list and they confirmed this. Late June, one of my other roommates informed me that she and another girl had added their names to the list mid-June and one of them had gotten a parking spot a week later. Neither my roommate (who originally was first on the list) nor I were informed of this. The maintenance people are fairly friendly and they do complete work orders on time, which is nice. The street this complex is on is not the safest, but has gotten better. It is not well lit, and often there are some sketchy people walking around outside. A couple doors up, there used to be an open space where a lot of homeless community members lived - nothing wrong with that, just can be a little off-putting, especially late at night. The park on the corner of the street is also fairly sketchy and you don't want to be walking through that. The lights from the Med Center and the lights in the courtyard do help. The trash is in the parking garage under the complex and it seems to always be overflowing and it's sketchy walking down there at night sometimes. It is good because you live in a complex which is composed of nearly all University Students, so you can usually tell who should and who should not be there, but it can lead to loud noise and parties on some nights you would rather it not. The walk to the edge of campus is about 10-15 minutes, depending on how fast you walk, and there is a nice gate through the Med Center which will take you to a road straight to campus as well as the 65 bus stop which is convenient to get to campus (and the 67 is just a block further west). Kelsey itself is not too bad (though I wouldn't say it's good by any means), but I would deter anyone from living here in order to avoid the complete lack of respect management provides to its residents. You can definitely find another place for about the same price with way better amenities...

Kelsey doesn't offer tours to their apartments. This should've been the number one red flag when I first looked into their place.

We moved in and there were already damages on the blind covers. Below the couch, under the fridge, and on the sides of the oven were dusty and dirty. The heater was dusty and would have a burning smell when turned on. For upcoming residents, I would really recommend that you take pictures of when you first come into your apartment.

Our base rent stayed the same but there were unexplained spikes in our utility bill. The laundry/washer costs also changed from time to time and you couldn't always guarantee if your clothes were going to be washed or dried properly because of how faulty their machines are. Sometimes we had to dry our clothes multiple times because it wouldn't dry well the first time.

They started vacuuming the hallways about a few months after we moved in. But all the other places (elevator, laundry room, mailroom) were unclean and smelly. Mail gets stolen pretty frequently, so we had to get it as soon as possible. If not stolen, piles of mail and other papers would be scattered on the ground.

IF YOU HAVE A CAR, I would not trust the garage at Kelsey. For the entirety of my stay, cars got broken into 7 times. There is nothing Kelsey can do to help and they don't have any cameras to back you up. The garage door has also been left open for more than a week due to a malfunction. Obviously U district is already as unsafe as it is, but I wished that they had maintained more security to keep their residents safe. There's also tons of old cars just sitting in their garage..?

Like someone else said, Kelsey is bearable if you can handle the rest of the nuances that goes on. But dorming would've been so...