UCLA’s ‘worrisome’ plan for tiny $600 dorms put on hold

A plan to build tiny $600-a-month dorms at UCLA has been put on hold after concerns were raised by the University of California Regents last week.

In a Thursday meeting, the regents’ finance and capital strategies committee discussed approving the redevelopment of Gayley Towers, an apartment building already owned by the University of California system, at 565 Gayley Avenue in Westwood. According to the meeting notes, the proposed project would “redevelop an aging 1981 apartment building, comprised of 51 studio units (100 beds), into high-density communal living accommodations.”

The existing complex would be demolished in order to turn it into an eight-story building with 545 beds. Three students would be assigned to each room, and residents would share kitchens and communal living spaces. According to the Los Angeles Times, the three-person rooms would have 265 square feet “for three beds, desks, closets, storage space and a refrigerator.”

According to the proposal, at least 358 beds would be set aside as affordable housing, going for $600 per student per month — 66% below market rate in the expensive Los Angeles neighborhood around the UCLA campus. But the low rent couldn’t allay fears expressed by some UC regents that the rooms are simply too small to be comfortable. 

“I don’t want to call these jails,” the LA Times quoted Regent Hadi Makarechian saying during a meeting last week, “but … these aren’t really good dorms.”

Others worried the tiny rooms would have a negative impact on students’ mental health.

“It really is worrisome,” ex officio regent Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis said, according to the LA Times. “What it comes down to is your efforts to use every square foot of land to produce space for as many students as possible. But there is a limit that can get us to the point where students can … really experience negative mental health impact by the way that they’re being asked to live.”

The project is now on hold until the committee gathers more information about the possible impact of the small rooms for UCLA students. It’s not the first time there’s been pushback to proposed housing for a UC campus; in 2021, there was a firestorm over windowless student housing proposed for UC Santa Barbara. That project, which would have used “artificial light and mechanical ventilation” instead of windows for students’ rooms, appears to have been scrapped.