As UConn enrollment spikes, a housing squeeze tightens. What's being done across state to address it

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9 hours ago

A major housing crunch on the main campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs had at least one unanticipated benefit: some UConn students enrolled at the Hartford regional campus will have a university-sponsored housing option in the city a year earlier than expected.
UConn's lease in downtown Hartford encompassing nearly all of a Main Street building being converted to apartments comes amid a surge in enrollment at the state's flagship university. UConn is pushing to meet the accompanying housing demand that is particularly acute on its main campus in Storrs.
To help meet the housing needs in Storrs, UConn decided not to offer students enrolled in Hartford the option to live in Storrs this fall. In the last academic year, about 275 first-years and sophomores at the Hartford campus took up the option. About 1,500 undergraduates were enrolled at Hartford as of the fall of 2024.
UConn already planned its first residence hall in Hartford on Pratt Street for up to 200 — to be completed by the fall of 2026. The conversion of 525 Main St., a short walk to the Hartford campus at Front Street, provided a way to accommodate at least some of the Hartford students, and it could be ready by fall.
'We thought, what a great opportunity to provide housing for those students who are Hartford students who are unable to live on the Storrs campus,' Cynthia Costanzo, UConn's assistant vice president for student life, said. 'This allows UConn one more time to step forward and try an resolve a problem for some students in a different way.'
The decision to temporarily lease 33 of the 42 apartments being created at 525 Main — to accommodate about 60 students — to free up space on the Storrs campus illustrates the depth of UConn's housing crunch at its main campus.
UConn is looking for all available space in existing residence halls at its main campus, often converting lounges to rooms. The university has warmed to the development of student housing by private developers at its borders, where as once it fought such projects as competing with its own residence halls.
The university also has changed its housing policy and will now only guarantee first-year students housing, making it more competitive for upperclassmen, leaving some to look off campus.
But Costanzo said 66% of those enrolled at the Storrs campus will have housing — including all first-year and sophomore-level students, who applied by the deadline. That's nearly 14,000 students, including juniors and seniors, who will have housing this fall on and close by the Storrs campus, Costanzo said.
Costanzo said the percentage of UConn undergraduates students obtaining housing also is well above its peer universities, the next closest being 62% at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Some are half of what UConn provides, such as the University of Delaware, at 38%, Costanzo said.
Enrollment has steadily climbed in recent years at UConn, increasing the need for housing.
The number of undergraduates enrolling at the main campus and across the university's four regional campuses rose to 24,979, up 4%, compared with 24,007 the previous year, according to the university. Since 2020, there has been a 4.2% increase.
First-year students across all campuses jumped by nearly 12%, as of last fall, compared with 2023. And at the regional campuses, first-year enrollment spiked by 25%, led by Stamford and Hartford.
On the Storrs campus, the university opened its newest residence facility — the $215 million Connecticut Hall with 657 beds in a suite design — last fall. Major features include ample collaboration space for students to work together and lounge space on every floor and a 'living room' on the ground level. The lounge space — accounting for about 10% of the building — is intended to build community and friendships which UConn believes is essential to academic success.
The new, 275,000-square-foot building is a centerpiece of South Campus, at the corner of Gilbert and Mansfield roads. When it was built, the residence hall was the first new student housing to be constructed on the Storrs campus in six years and nearly two decades before that.
A planned redevelopment of UConn's Mansfield Apartments on South Eagleville Road — now demolished — has languished. And a vision for tearing down the 1950s-era North Campus, nicknamed 'The Jungle,' and replacing it will more modern housing has been shelved, at least for now.
'Certainly there was conversation about that, but, quite frankly, with the population of students and the demand for housing right, we're hardly in a position to close North,' Costanza said. 'We need it.'
How the 2-year budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Ned Lamont will affect the university's future plans for housing is yet to be determined, with a university spokesperson saying 'it is too soon to know.'
UConn President Radenka Maric told students and staff in a message sent after the state budget was adopted that the approved FY26 budget provides $268.2 million, which will create a shortfall of $72 million in FY26 for the university.
Maric said that UConn Health faces a 'shortfall of $61.8 million.'
Costanza said UConn also is increasing the number of off-campus beds it is leasing for student use. At The Oaks on The Square apartments, a privately-owned complex in downtown Storrs on the campus' southern border, UConn is leasing 384 units to accommodate more than 600 undergraduates, Costanza said.
And this fall, the first of two new major, off-campus apartment complexes will come up for leasing.
In the past, UConn fought off-campus housing plans by private developers, worried that they would compete with on-campus housing. But today, UConn sees the developments as helping to ease housing shortages, especially projects that are just beyond the campus borders.
'It's a very different landscape now,' Stephanie Reitz, a university spokesperson, said.. 'There really doesn't have to be a stark line between one and the other. There can be a blending of service and community and support that doesn't end at the campus border.'
The university's office of off-campus and commuter services always helped with housing, Reitz said.
'It also connects them with services on campus so people realize if you live off campus you still have access to (mental health services), Reitz said. 'You can get a UConn meal plan. Living off campus doesn't exclude you from community involvement.'
The project, developed by Landmark Properties, that will begin leasing this fall is the 390-unit Standard at Four Corners on Storrs Road, which includes 890 beds. Landmark also has announced that it will break ground later this year on another 738-bed development on North Eagleville Road, adjacent to the campus.
In addition to Hartford, UConn also is expanding its housing options in Stamford, its fastest-growing regional campus.
First-year enrollment jumped more than 50% to 935, as of fall 2004, compared with 622, the previous year. Total undergraduates rose nearly 11% in the same period.
UConn plans to add about 350 student beds for the 2026-2027 academic year at 1201 Washington Blvd., not far from a portion of its student housing at 900 Washington Blvd and just down the street from the Stamford campus. UConn expects to eventually have 750 beds for the Stamford campus.
And at UConn's Avery Point campus in Groton, the university is exploring the potential for housing that could be built on 1-acre baseball practice field. But the studies are in the earliest stages and scope or cost has not been determined, Reitz said.
In Hartford, the number of first-year students rose nearly 19% in the fall of 2024, compared with the previous year. Overall enrollment rose a little over 3%.
Matt Levy, a partner in the $8 million redevelopment of the four-story offices at 525 Main, said he always believed the building would be suitable for UConn housing.
Levy, the son of Coleman Levy, a former chairman of the UConn Board of Trustees, said he had reached out to UConn periodically,. But once the Pratt Street location was chosen, Levy saw chances as slim.
Then, in late March, Levy said he was contacted by UConn.
'I was surprised, pleasantly surprised,' Levy said. 'Times had changed, and our property was well positioned to take advantage of that opportunity.'
Reporting by Courant Staff Writer Sean Krofssik is included.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [e-mail].