HOUSING

Places to stay

Remember that you are responsible for arranging your own housing during the internship.  Try to make arrangements as soon as you can so that you have a choice.  In the box beside you will have some recommended suggestions which are reliable and interns have used them in the past, even so, you can make other arrangements on your own.  Make sure that you will be living in a safe area.  The area that we recommend is the northwest (NW).  It is not recommended to live in the northeastern (NE) section of the city.

The housing closest to the GS/OAS in D.C. is located in any neighborhood in the northwest (NW) part of the city.  These neighborhoods include Foggy Bottom/George Washington University, Dupont Circle, and cities like Rosslyn and Arlington in Virginia.  Below are some options, found in various parts of the D.C. area, that interns have used in the past and have recommended for future interns to use.

Here are some other sites to look for places to rent:

ALERT! CRAIGSLIST is one of the most popular sites to find places to rent. However, you should be informed that the announcements may be fraudulent. A useful piece of advice: never give a deposit beforehand. Meet personally with the landlord who is renting the property before making any kind of transaction.

In addition, you can sidestep would-be scammers by following these common-sense rules:

  • Deal locally with people you can meet in person - follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist.
  • Never wire funds via western union, moneygram or any other wire service - anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
  • Craiglist is not involved in any transaction, and does not handle payments, guarantee transactions, provide escrow services, or offer "buyer protection" or "seller certification"
  • Never give out financial information (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal info, etc.).
  • Avoid deals involving shipping or escrow services and know that only a scammer will "garantee" your transaction.

For more information (click here)

Neighborhood Watch

Before you rent a place, it is important that you know if the area is a safe place to live. It is for this reason that we want to share with you a website about the criminal statistics in the street or neighborhood where you would like to rent.

http://www.criminalsearches.com/neighborhood/default.aspx

It is important to keep in mind that like any other capital in the world, Washington DC, is a city where there are areas in which you have to be careful and use your common sense.