The Bay Area’s affordability crisis is not just hitting low-income and middle-class families. Local universities are struggling with ways to provide affordable housing for students, teachers and staff. Without affordable housing, students are less likely to succeed at these schools and universities cannot recruit and retain talented faculty and staff.
“We are getting our asses kicked by New York. We pretty much accept the top art students in the world, and we lose them to Pratt in Brooklyn because they have housing,” California College of the Arts Director of Research and Planning David Meckel said. “The California Conservatory of Music has the same problem. They just lose them to Julliard.”
Meckel, along with developers, consultants, designers and other education administrators, discussed the challenges and impacts associated with a lack of affordable student housing during Bisnow’s NorCal Student Housing & Development event Wednesday.