Students at CSULB often find themselves living in a hotel instead of a dorm room for a semester.
Those who had hopes in securing a affordable and convenient off-campus housing are forced to adjust their plans due to the lack of alternatives.
Abigail Wall, a CSULB student residing at Hotel Current, was one of the students on the waiting list for the dorms.
“One of the emails I received from the housing office mentioned hotels partnering with the school so my mom and I emailed them and here we are,” Wall said.
This is the first full academic year where the option of residing at the hotel is available to students.
The students living at Hotel Current, one of the hotels partnering with the school to provide off-campus housing, are given the choice of 30 rooms within the hotel, some being double occupancy.
The university reached out a couple years ago to the hotel for assistance with the rising number of students who needed off-campus housing assistance.
Last semester, over 5,200 students applied for on and off-campus housing, with 2,000 of the applicants being returners. However, only 600 spots were available for returning applicants. The rest were placed on a the paid waitlist.
A service fee of $275 was needed to secure a spot on the waitlist although dorming was not guaranteed. Some students were not given much time to sort out their living situation and they had to accommodate accordingly.
This semester, there are 30 students residing at Hotel Current. There are two tier options that students get to choose from, an unfurnished studio or a semi-furnished option.
The choices presented for students aren’t much different than if they were trying to dorm through the campus itself, however, the circumstances are not identical.
“We do a minimum of two months and then after it becomes a month-to-month agreement,” Wayne Nagel, hotel manager at Hotel Current said. “Some students sign up for a year, some only do it for a month. We look at each case differently.”
The exact cost of living at the hotel is unclear as it varies depending on the students’ needs.
The number of students applying to the college campus has been increasing over the years. According to the annual report from CSULB, the school received over 115,000 applicants in 2022 and over 120,000 applications for 2023, making it a 4 percent increase.
With CSULB leading Cal State campuses in applications, off-campus housing is becoming even more scarce.
Hotel Current is about a five-minute drive from campus and approximately a 13-minute bus ride. While the distance is not too far, it can come with its own set of issues for students.
“I have a dining hall pass but I don’t have a car right now,” Wall said. “There have been some nights where I have gone hungry because I can’t go and get food because I can’t leave.”
There was also an issue when it came to disposing of garbage at the beginning of the semester.
“We have to drive to the back of the building to throw away our trash,” Wall said. “We have to gather all the trash in my roommate’s car, unlock the dumpster and throw all of our stuff away really fast.”
The inconvenience of living away from campus is weighing heavy on some students as it can be a difficult situation to adjust with.
Even with university assistance, students have to change their financial needs at short notice at these off-campus residences.
“There is a laundry room here but it only takes quarters and it takes two dollars for the wash and two dollars for the dryer,” Wall said. “It’s much cheaper at the school and we don’t have to beg for quarters so we wait until we desperately need to do laundry and our friends who live at Hillside let us in.”
The housing office at CSULB does provide assistance for students who may be having difficulty with their living situations.
Since the initial interview with Wall, her situation has changed and she was offered a spot in the dorms, which she declined.
Currently, it is uncertain whether or not this will be a long term partnership with the hotels for the off-campus housing predicament.
This article was updated on Oct. 17, 2023 for quality purposes.