SAN DIEGO — More than 2,000 students at the University California, San Diego are on a waitlist for campus housing for the upcoming fall quarter that begins Sept. 25. Now, students are looking elsewhere in an area of San Diego where off-campus housing is not only expensive but hard to come by.
Lucia Rejzek is studying abroad this upcoming quarter and subletting her place while she’s away. She says requests to fill her spot are piling in, the majority being freshmen.
“To have this underlying stress about where you’re going to live and whether you’re getting to a hotel off campus is just so unsettling,” Rejzek said. “It is just completely obscene that maybe two months before you’re supposed to start, you had to find other housing and you could only find it for a quarter.”
This follows the delay of a $565 million project originally slated to open in the fall known as the Theater District Living and Learning Neighborhood. It’s a residential area set to offer 2,000 beds.
“It is a huge issue across all the UC system,” shared George Lo, who is the Student Body President of Associated Students of UC San Diego. He says the university is using several tactics to find off-campus housing until the Winter and Spring quarters.
“Some of the students were offered winter contracts, which means they will be seeking some off campus resources over the fall quarter,” Lo explained.
According to the UCSD Housing Portal, Resident Inn San Diego in La Jolla will host students at a lower price in the fall quarter, but a student must agree to stay for at least 90 days.
“A quarter is roughly ten weeks, so that means you’re stepping into finals when you’re forced to move. For me, in my perspective, that is super challenging to have to deal with,” said Kyle, a graduate student at UCSD.
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FOX 5 reached out to UCSD regarding the matter. A spokesperson responded with this statement:
UC San Diego ranks third in the nation for student housing inventory, but there is still high demand for on-campus housing. Providing access to below market rate housing for UC San Diego students will continue to be a priority for the university, and three new projects underway will provide housing for more than 5,700 students by 2025.
Leslie Sepuka, UCSD Spokesperson
