The Daily Tar Heel
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Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025 Newsletters Latest print issue
The Daily Tar Heel

Op-ed: Can't find housing? Neither can Orange County community members.

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The inadequacy of student housing at UNC is undeniable. For the 2022-23 school year, nearly 600 students who applied before the priority deadline for housing were placed on a waitlist. For 2023-24, there were over 1,100, and last November the 2025-26 waitlist numbered over 1,340

Facing financial strain, increased commute times and involuntary severance from UNC's community, students are left in impossible situations, especially those reliant on housing aid, accessible rooms and routes to class. However, this crisis is hardly contained within the University itself. 

With more students spilling out into surrounding apartments due to the lack of campus housing, the Orange County community is overwhelmed. The median household family income for a UNC student is $135,100, and 60 percent of students come from the top 20 percent. When more of these students fill off-campus housing, the cost of rent inflates and the cycle entrenches itself as students continue to match these increasing prices. With a median family income of just 64 percent that of a UNC student’s, the working-class residents of Orange County struggle to keep up with rising prices. 

UNC is both the first public institution in the United States and the flagship university of North Carolina, meaning it must epitomize action benefiting the public, especially for those in the same county it resides in. Unfortunately, UNC seems to support only wealthy students and community members by gentrifying Orange County housing. 

UNC's staggering on-campus housing prices substantially inflate the housing prices in Orange County, which only ends in segregation along the lines of class. For many students, college is the one place where we are treated equally regardless of our class background, but the University's housing prices draw lines across the student body and the greater community, defeating this vision. 

UNC doesn't even provide for the community members it employs. The hourly minimum wage for staff at UNC is $15 an hour, and self-reported dining hall wages administered through a third party were just $11.72 an hour in 2022. In contrast, the 2024 Orange County living wage is $17.65 an hour. 

UNC worker wages are far under the living wage, making it impossible for staff to pay for housing as UNC simultaneously drives up prices. Additionally, behind the curtain, Chancellor Lee Roberts receives a base salary of $600,000, revealing an even more stark contrast and making it clear who the University really serves: not regular North Carolinians, but the wealthy. 

UNC must demonstrate our responsibility to both students and the public it benefits. We must build housing capable of accommodating at least those who applied by the priority deadline or decrease the admittance rate until we can confidently say we are able to support all students to decrease the strain on the Orange County community. 

UNC must pay workers a just, livable wage and start to close the gap between our most and least wealthy. The University must address its part in the housing crisis in Orange County and, in doing so, figure out who it really works for. 

Talia Wilson, hub spokesperson for Sunrise UNC, and Kiersten Hackman, political team member.

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