Dive Brief:
- Elmwood Park, New Jersey-based student housing provider Aptitude Development has partnered with text messaging-based mental health platform Counslr to provide free access to its services as an amenity for residents.
- The app provides mental health support around the clock from licensed professionals. Services are available either on demand or by appointment, depending on user needs and preferences.
- Aptitude is piloting Counslr as an amenity at three of its properties on the East Coast. Initial rollout is scheduled for early August, and it intends to expand the service nationwide over the course of 2024.
Dive Insight:
Depression, anxiety and other emotional problems are widespread among U.S. college students, with more than 60% meeting the criteria for at least one mental health issue, according to the results of the Healthy Minds Study by the Healthy Minds Network, a mental health research organization made up of faculty collaborators from multiple universities.
In particular, 44% of the study’s 90,000 respondents between 2022 and 2023 reported symptoms of depression, 37% reported anxiety and 15% had considered suicide.
Aptitude Development has developed 10 ground-up student housing properties across the East Coast and Midwest, and it has $1 billion in pipeline developments and over 20,000 student beds in various planning stages, according to the company website. The properties that will start offering Counslr services in August include:
- The Marshall Rochester, near Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.
- The Ithacan, near Ithaca College and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
- The Pier @ Conway, near Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.
“We've been speaking with the team at Counslr for close to a year now, and the need for mental health resources for students has only continued to grow in that time,” Jared Hutter, co-founder and principal at Aptitude Development, told Multifamily Dive. “We're always trying to give our student tenants the best chance at achieving academic excellence, and we expect Counslr's mental health services to go a long way toward that objective.”
Aptitude is Counslr’s first multifamily housing partnership, and the company plans to work with other housing providers in the future, according to Josh Liss, CEO and founder of Counslr. “Counslr's mission is to help better reach the traditionally unreachable,” Liss told Multifamily Dive. “We hope to partner with as many like minded organizations as possible to further our mission.”
