"We're getting ready to start advertising for people to give us listings," said Terry Howell, coordinator for off-campus housing for the University of Hawai'i. "We're going to start it a month earlier than usual to build up our database before everyone gets here and starts panicking."

Officials are trying to avoid a repeat of last summer's housing crisis — one of the university's worst in recent memory — which saw as many as 1,200 students on a dormitory waiting list and ended with some left to their own devices in a tight rental market.

But administrators know there won't be enough rooms to meet demand.

Although UH expects to add 700 more rooms by 2007 and an additional 2,000 by 2010, that doesn't help this year.

And some of the panic has already set in.

"A few people have said, 'If I can't find a place, then I'm not going to come out there,' " Howell said.

In upstate New York, Heather Trombly has been calling and e-mailing to find a home for her son, Brandon, who will be a freshman at UH in September. Because his housing application was three days late, she said, the UH Housing office has told her they can't guarantee dorm space, even though the university says it will accommodate all freshmen.

"I just called yesterday and I'm about ready to scream," said a worried Heather Trombly by phone. "I've called and called and e-mailed and they told me they're on the third round of putting people in the dorms. They said, 'You're on the waiting list,' but then yesterday they referred me to off-campus housing.

"But I just thought when you applied for school and you're accepted, you have a dorm (room) waiting for you, especially when you're coming from this far. I would rather him be in a safe place like the campus than finding an apartment. You can't really go and check it out."

Priorities set

Yuko Iguchi, a UH student, practices her kickboxing while Lyndle Harper instructs her at his home in Kaimuki. Harper and girlfriend Kim Hashimoto rent out a room in their home to students like Iguchi for $550 a month, less than the going rate of around $620 a month. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Enrollment we anticipate will be about the same as last year but we've moved up all our deadlines to make it easier to process requests, get housing done and get financial aid out faster," said Neal Smatresk, vice chancellor for academic affairs at the UH-Manoa campus. "We're serving the same number of people as last year but the difference is people didn't know they weren't going to get housing last year. By letting people know where they stand faster, we're hoping they can make better plans."

But it means that a foreign student from Japan who doesn't speak English well may be at a disadvantage.

Yuko Iguchi, a 27-year-old sculptor from Saitama, Japan, found a home with a family in Wai'alae Iki a few months ago on the Internet, only to discover how far away it was once she arrived in Hawai'i to study English.

"It was so far from school," said her roommate and friend, Kim Hashimoto, translating.

By luck, at UH she met Hashimoto, who told her that she and her boyfriend, Lyndle Harper, rent rooms to international students in their Kaimuki home, which is a short bus ride to campus. Iguchi moved in and has been happy ever since. She even joined the kickboxing classes Harper teaches nightly at Kapi'olani Park.

For Harper and Hashimoto, who is also a Japanese tutor, gathering an international group of students into their home has provided an added dimension to their lives, as well as extra income. The students pay $550 a month, less than the going rate of around $620 a month for a single room near the university.

"It would be cool if a lot of the older families who owned homes opened them up to university students," said Harper, a personal trainer who thinks the extra income could help many older couples. "They're imagining it's rowdy," he said, "but you just have to set house rules — like no smoking in the house and quiet time after 10 p.m."

For another of their renters, June Aso, a 19-year-old student from Japan studying English at Kapi'olani Community College, the Kaimuki household also has been a godsend.

"She said if her mom didn't help her (on the Internet), she would have had a difficult time finding housing," said Hashimoto, translating for Aso.

Prices going up

Rents vary widely.

"Studios are averaging about $860 a month," said Howell, the off-campus housing coordinator. "And one-bedrooms around $1,200. Lately the prices have been going up. A year ago a room was from $350 to $500, averaging about $575."

By comparison, dorm room prices at Manoa for the fall and spring semesters range from a low of about $2,817 to a high of $5,427 a year, with meal plans ranging from a low of $2,044 for the least expensive to $2,481 for the most.

Realtor Shannon Smith likes to list her own two personal properties on the UH site because she likes student renters. Two Hawai'i Pacific University students here on golf scholarships, one from Canada and one from Montana, have been perfect tenants, she said, and she was able to sublease their apartment for the summer to UH summer school students.

"The HPU guys are coming back, so everybody's happy," she said. "If I think they're serious and they're not going to tear the place down, I don't have a problem renting to students. But I make it real clear the resident manager won't put up with late-night parties. And if they get fined, they're going to be paying it. Not me."