2,343 students remained on the housing waitlist, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug. 16.
Associate Director of University Communications Leslie Sepuka stated to The UCSD Guardian that all students with a housing contract moved into housing this fall and that the university has fulfilled its two-year undergraduate on-campus housing guarantee for the classes that entered in Fall 2022 and Fall 2023.
However, many students without a housing guarantee struggled to find on-campus housing, including John Muir senior Julian-Dante Mackenzie. One of the issues students like Mackenzie faced was having limited time to find housing after finding out they had been put on the waitlist this August.
“Eventually, I did receive housing but not until October after school already started,” Mackenzie said. “Ultimately, I ended up living off campus. The process of signing a lease was also very difficult with the limited time I had after finding out I did not receive housing in August.”
Eleanor Roosevelt College sophomore Dylan Doonan said that he was told by the university that he filled out some of the paperwork late, so he was placed on the housing waitlist. Doonan then experienced difficulties with the housing waitlist which forced him to move to an off-campus apartment.
“I looked in the last two weeks of summer, and I freaked out once I saw that I wasn’t eligible for housing,” Doonan said. “It might be a fault of my own, but when I found out, I searched for off-campus housing.”
Sepuka said that the university does provide several resources for students searching for housing off-campus, which include the Off-Campus Housing Office and the UC San Diego Student Off-Campus Housing Facebook Group.
Doonan was able to find his current apartment via the Off-Campus Housing Office website.
“Fortunately, the website was useful,” Doonan said. “It led me to where I need to be. I was able to find housing that wasn’t too overpriced.”
Additionally, Sepuka noted that there are a limited number of units within UCSD Framework, an apartment complex along the Blue Line Trolley in Downtown San Diego. The university has also negotiated discounted rates with a local partner hotel next to campus, but students need to stay a minimum of 90 days in order to be eligible.
With the recent construction, the university is hoping to increase the amount of housing available on campus in the future.
“The university’s ultimate goal is to provide on-campus housing to up to 65% of all students by 2035 and continue to make progress toward a four-year undergraduate housing guarantee at below market rates for comparable units,” Sepuka said.
