SF State Looks to Add Student Housing

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- School administrators are pushed to jump-start a long-discussed plan to expand the campus with a new “main street,” a residential and retail corridor that would provide as many as 1,000 new beds. The school has about 25,800 undergraduate students and 3,500 beds on campus. Sheila Tully, an Anthropology lecturer, said the cost of living in the Bay Area is a struggle for everyone. “We have students commuting from Merced and Modesto. We have students living in their cars. Homelessness is a big problem,” she said. “We have married faculty living in studios, desperately hoping they won’t be evicted.” Meanwhile, students are hustling to find rooms before the fall semester starts. Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts major and Novato commuter Tim Blair said he spent five hours a day for nearly a month before he got lucky and scored a bedroom in a basement two blocks from campus.