And of course… it’s for the safety of the students.

Jenn Abelson of the Boston Globe reported.

Colleges in Boston required to release off-campus addresses

The Boston City Council on Wednesday voted to require colleges with a presence in Boston to provide a list of off-campus addresses where students are residing, in a step intended to fight chronic overcrowding and protect the health and safety of the thousands of students living in the city.

The measure was approved three months after a Boston Globe Spotlight Team investigation, “Shadow Campus,” revealed that illegal, overcrowded apartments with hazardous conditions riddle the city’s university neighborhoods, including a large number in violation of a zoning rule that prohibits more than four full-time undergraduates from sharing a house or apartment.

After a fire at an off-campus apartment in Allston last year killed 22-year-old Binland Lee, a Boston University student, community activists called on colleges in Boston to release the addresses of their off-campus students to enable the city to build a database that could be used to detect dangerous, overcrowded living conditions.

Most universities resisted until June, when Mayor Martin J. Walsh met with college leaders and they largely agreed to disclose the addressees. City Councilor Josh Zakim then proposed formalizing the arrangement by amending the city’s University Accountability Ordinance, which requires colleges to provide a breakdown of the number of students living in each ZIP code.

Now, the institutions will need to include the address and unit number for student apartments, as well as whether the individual is an undergraduate or graduate student, by Nov. 15 each fall, and within 45 days of the beginning of each semester or quarter.

It is an anonymous report and no student names will be included.