Carolina Housing looks to accommodate 900 student waitlist

As of Jan. 16, there were less than 900 students still waiting for on-campus housing.

These students are on the priority waitlist to receive a housing assignment for the fall 2024 semester. That list decreased by more than 200 students from the last update on Dec. 1. The University typically houses more than 8,500 undergraduate and graduate students on campus.

Allan Blattner, executive director of Carolina Housing, said in a statement that this number of students without confirmed housing is normal.  Although not guaranteed, Blattner expects all students to be housed. Blattner said the waitlist is typically cleared by August and about 600 to 1,000 beds open up each academic year due to resident advisor assignments, study abroad plans and enrollment cancellations. 

However, demand for on-campus housing continues to outpace the supply. Carolina Housing said there has been increased demand for on-campus accommodations. Furthermore, plans to close Avery Residence Hall for renovations during the 2024-25 academic year will result in a reduction of 230 beds. 

Eppy Camacho, a first-year student from Raleigh, is just one of many students who were placed on the Carolina Housing waitlist for fall 2024. She said she and her roommate applied for housing by the priority deadline in late November and were given a date in early December to choose a dorm.

Two days before the selection date, the roommates received an email that there were no beds left. 

“It was really stressful, especially since this happened right as finals were starting,” Camacho said. “We didn’t know if we were going to have somewhere to live next year.” 

Blattner said Carolina Housing sends weekly updates to students on the waitlist that indicate the total number of students on the waitlist, but Camacho said she was not given an indication of her place on the waitlist. In December, Carolina Housing hosted a webinar that was attended by over 180 students and family members on the priority housing waitlist, including Camacho.

“They said, ‘Oh, there’s probably going to be some movement after the March 1 deadline to cancel, but we don’t know when you’ll actually get off the waitlist,’” Camacho said. 

Students on the waitlist are required to pay a fee for canceling their housing contract. The fee is $300 before March 1 and will increase to 50 percent of the fall room rent on March 2. 

“It made me really frustrated,” Camacho said. “It didn't make me question my choice to come here, but it made me really worried about next year and how that would all play out.” 

Camacho said she and her parents decided it would be best to sign a lease for an apartment, about a 10-minute walk from campus, to ease the uncertainty of the experience. 

Karen Valdez, a junior who transferred to UNC last fall, said she was placed on the priority housing waitlist in May, after she was accepted to the University. She said she was notified shortly after enrolling about an issue with her acceptance fee that pushed her further down the waitlist.

After what she recounted as a two minute long phone call with Carolina Housing, Valdez said she was told she would need to find housing on her own. 

“It kind of discouraged me,” Valdez said. “Just because even though I'm technically a junior, I am a first year student at Carolina specifically. So that kind of made it hard for me to experience anything of that sort.”

Because Carolina Housing is an “auxiliary operation,” it does not receive state funding, so its main revenue is from student rent, Blattner said. 

Valdez said she was hopeful Carolina Housing would help her in the process of finding or even paying for off-campus housing. She now lives in an apartment in Raleigh that fits her budget, and has a daily 35 -45 minute commute to Chapel Hill. For next year, Valdez said she did not even apply to live on campus again. She is now beginning the search for an apartment in the Durham area. 

With the exception of last year, Carolina Housing has been able to accommodate every student on the priority housing waitlist who maintains a housing contract, Blattner said.

“While this is not a guarantee for this year, we expect to be able to provide housing to all students who applied by the priority deadline based on currently available information,” Blattner said. 

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