Hundreds of FAMU freshmen in housing limbo just weeks before start of fall semester

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Several hundred frustrated parents of incoming FAMU freshmen unsure of where their students are going to live and unsure of how much a potential solution to their recently discovered student housing challenge is going to cost them took to social media this week to vent. 

FAMU officials said the predicament is the result of having “a larger incoming freshman class as well as a jump in the number of transfer students.”

Parents say they believe there should have been a lot more communication from the university. Most found out for the first time last week. 

In total, roughly 1,400 freshmen and upperclassmen may be without housing.

“We’re kind of in a ‘Catch-22,’” said one mother of a FAMU freshman who vented on twitter.

While 1,400 families like Jamie’s met their deadline for housing at FAMU and paid deposits, the university has run out of room.

University housing officials, this week, used their social media to say  “we sincerely apologize to all students who want to live on campus, however, we have reached our capacity in housing.”  

 
The University’s 2,450 on-campus beds are already reserved. Residence halls include FAMU Towers, Polkinghorne Villages, Sampson & Young, Palmetto and Phase III. 

The Office of Housing provided a link for students and parents to search for off campus housing: https://offcampushousing.famu.edu/.

Fall semester move in begins at the FAMU Towers on August 15 and runs through August 20.  

Parents upset

“I’m quite sure they knew this was going to be a situation before one to two weeks ago,” said David, father to another incoming FAMU freshman.  “It’s a big, big difference,” David said. “We’ve been planning and budgeting for one amount and now there’s a very high likelihood that we’re going to have to pay more for off-campus housing.  Then there is the concern of having such a young adult on their own in a new city.”

 “My biggest concern is safety,” Jamie said.

“They’re better suited and set up for success better when they are on campus,” David agrees.
It’s that lack of communication that upsets parents the most.

“I feel like first they should have been very transparent with families and the students,” Jamie said.

Jamie said at this stage in the game, there really aren’t many other housing options out there.