A California university ran out of on-campus housing and is pleading with staff to open their homes to hundreds of students
- UC Santa Cruz is struggling to find housing for its incoming students with less than a month until classes begin.
- The public university houses about 50% of its student population each year, guaranteeing on-campus housing for freshman and transfer students.
- The school's Community Rentals portal doesn't have enough listings to fill in the gaps.
Classes start at the University of California, Santa Cruz in less than a month and some students still don't have a place to live.
In an email sent this week, Dave Keller, the executive director of housing services at UC Santa Cruz, pleaded with faculty and staff to offer their homes to hundreds of students who are on the waitlist for on-campus housing, reported Mercury News.
"The need is real and it is urgent, so I am reaching out to the faculty and staff community for help. Offering a room in your home to a student who has not been able to find housing for the school year would be a tremendous support to their success at UCSC," Keller wrote.
The school "guarantees" two years of on-campus housing to freshmen and one year to transfer students, according to Mercury News. In total, the university houses about 50% of its student population, said a school spokesman. The rest are placed on a waitlist or turn to the school's Community Rentals portal to find a place to live, but there simply aren't enough listings right now.
UC Santa Cruz is expecting to welcome 5,600 new freshman this quarter, along with thousands of transfer students. The school has an enrollment of over 18,000 and is one of 10 campuses in the University of California system.
It's not the first time UC Santa Cruz has made this plea. A spokesman said something similar happened several years ago and staff stepped up to add listings for rooms in their own home to the rental site.
It's clear why on-campus housing is a popular option at the school, which is located about 75 miles south of San Francisco, an area hit harder each year by rising rents and home prices.
According to a recent study by Trulia, living on campus at UC Santa Cruz is about $285 cheaper than renting off-campus - $1,670 compared to $1,955 a month.
The school is reportedly proposing new on-campus housing that will include space for 3,000 graduate students and student families.