The national housing crisis sets many college students up for failure before they can get their diplomas. On-campus dorm rooms can be pricey or, worse, substandard. Off-campus options aren’t always better. Rising market rents mean additional financial pressures and competition with individuals and families in a foundering economy.
Multifamily housing production hasn’t kept up with demand, so moving from university housing to a private off-campus rental can be just as expensive. A 2023 National Multifamily Housing Council report found that local rents tend to track student housing rents: A 10 percent increase in market rents produced an 8 percent increase in rents in student housing. Moody’s 2024 third-quarter analysis of multifamily and student housing costs showed that over a two-year period, student housing rent growth surged in comparison to multifamily rent growth. Those costs have forced university and municipal officials to come to grips with the housing crises students face.
The on-campus housing crunch has forced the state university systems in Massachusetts and California, two of the most expensive states in the country, to take action.
Amherst, Massachusetts, is home to the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts (UMass Amherst). Over 60 percent of students reside on campus, and a long-overdue housing redevelopment project is finally taking shape. Last month, UMass Amherst and American Campus Communities (ACC), one of the country’s largest developers of student housing, announced that they will work together on what they call a “comprehensive, long-range, and phased plan to modernize campus housing while maintaining affordability and exploring non-residential amenities to enhance the campus experience.”
UMass Amherst officials also plan to redesign current housing options while keeping those accommodations open to on-campus students. They’ll also seek out ideas about these projects from students, faculty, governance groups, and other campus stakeholders starting this summer and continuing into the fall.
Off-campus housing issues put municipal officials right in the middle of student housing challenges.
The Boston Globe has reported, however, that ACC’s acquisition by the private equity firm Blackstone has raised concerns about housing prices that can run higher than those for off-campus apartments. Students in ACC developments in Boston have complained about unexpected fees and subpar amenities.
These moves are big steps up for the university, but they come too late for students who end up in undesirable living situations. This fall, rising sophomore Joshua Svirsky, chair of the Student Government Association’s undergraduate services committee, will be in a “forced triple,” a room originally designed for two students that now houses three.
Svirsky explains that currently after a student’s first year of guaranteed housing, UMass Amherst uses a quasi-lottery system, based in part on how many semesters a student has lived on campus. This system, he says, provides almost no certainty for students who need to know as soon as possible where they’re going to live the following year, especially if they decide to move off campus. The median rent in Amherst is about $2,500 a month. “[With] a lot of off-campus housing, you need to sign a lease months in advance, because that stuff fills up really quick,” Svirsky says.
Off-campus housing issues put municipal officials right in the middle of student housing challenges. Amherst residents have petitioned the university to provide “significantly” more student housing, and some want town leaders to focus like a laser on providing homes for workers, families, and seniors, not students.
Councilor-at-Large Mandi Jo Hanneke has served on the Amherst Town Council for nearly a decade and works on town-gown housing issues. She and two other town officials meet with university officials twice a year to work on joint projects. There has been some progress in monitoring off-campus apartments.
Hanneke, who also serves as the council’s president, points to an updated rental inspection program that was re-established last fall. To protect students and other tenants from unscrupulous landlords, town officials will now perform random checks of rental units for potential code violations. But Amherst has more than 5,000 rental units, so it will take several years to complete the first series of inspections, Hanneke says.
“The housing off campus that students tend to rent, some of it was in very poor condition, and still charging very high rents,” Hanneke says, explaining that landlords would self-certify that their properties complied with state and local housing regulations. “Anyone can imagine that that is not the best way to ask whether a building meets building code.”
When it comes to subjects like housing, she described the dynamic with the university as “a complementary relationship that struggles to have ongoing discussions.” Recent conversations have involved the privately owned Olympia Drive apartment complex, which burned down last November. More than 200 students found themselves without housing; UMass Amherst continues to research other options.
UMass Amherst alumnus Evan Naismith is an Amherst resident with a keen interest in housing. “Nobody has the guts on the town council to say, students are human beings too—and even if we don’t have an obligation to house them, it’s actually in our best interest [to do so],” says Naismith, who’s also a student at the University of Connecticut School of Law. “If we don’t build purpose-built, taxable student housing for them, Amherst residents are simply going to start renting their homes out to these teenagers for an exorbitant profit.”
While Amherst’s housing pressures largely play out off campus, students at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) face twin challenges. First, the cost of living in Santa Barbara makes it the most expensive college town in the country. A two-bedroom apartment in Santa Barbara has increased by 66 percent in the last decade and now runs anywhere from $3,465 to $4,225 a month.
On-campus options, on the other hand, make up 43 percent of a student’s overall cost of attendance and are only guaranteed to incoming freshmen. Last fall, UCSB published its San Benito student housing plan, which would add 2,224 new beds for undergraduates, primarily in the form of four-bedroom, eight-person apartments. Construction is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2027.
UCSB has also announced an East Campus Housing Project, which is set to get under way this summer. The existing Santa Rosa residential hall will be demolished; the new dorm, alongside three new apartment buildings, will create an additional 1,688 beds. It’s not yet clear whether more students will obtain housing guarantees.
The shortage of reasonably priced off-campus housing in this popular coastal city presents even bigger problems for students who have to cope with health and safety risks in UCSB’s existing on-campus units. Students have gathered in online forums to voice their frustrations about pest issues, with some people noting that rodent problems have existed for years.
Diego Ramirez, a fourth-year UCSB student, lived in three different dormitories during his first three years on campus. Each dorm was worse than the previous one. Ramirez told the Prospect that he had to contend with mold, leaky ceilings, mite infestations, and rodents outside the building near the entryways. Although he filed work orders and complained to residential assistants, Ramirez felt the university didn’t take steps to address the problems he identified.
“It almost feels like it’s a chore for [UCSB] to have to listen and comply when there are genuine safety risks on this campus,” Ramirez says. “A week turns into two weeks. Two weeks turns into three weeks—and when they finally come around to fixing issues that you have, it’s not always solved.” He finally ended up renting a private apartment near campus for his senior year.
Kiki Reyes, a UCSB media relations manager, shared a statement provided by the UCSB Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprises, which outlined the university’s process for handling complaints and work orders. It noted that “complaints are promptly responded to by our building live-in staff and our residential operations staff.” Any complaints about pests or rodents, the notice said, “are responded to by third-party trained professional technicians that inspect, provide treatment measures, and eliminate the concern.”
Ramirez describes UCSB as his longtime “dream school,” but his experiences with housing soured his perspective. “It’s detrimental to come to a place that you looked up to for so long and see so many injustices every day,” he says.
Covering all the costs of college, whether through financial aid or a part-time job—or both—is no longer feasible for the vast majority of students, especially when housing costs are factored in. Who exactly is responsible for off-campus housing can be like a tennis match, with university administrators and local government officials continuously lobbing serves and returns about the issues they confront.
The answer to resolving on-campus housing difficulties is clear: Both sides must engage in direct and honest discussions. Students focused on finding alternative housing due to vermin or other potential health problems waste time, money, and emotional energy that could be better spent on their studies and enjoying campus life. Until students and administrators move away from endless rounds of emails and instead sit down face-to-face to discuss short-term fixes and longer-term solutions, housing issues will continue to fester.
