NCCU students struggle to find housing as university enrolls more freshmen for upcoming school year

North Carolina Central University student Samya Howard will likely spend her sophomore year driving from Wake Forest to the HBCU's campus in Durham because she was denied on-campus housing. It's a commute the theatre major didn't have last year.

"I'm only 42 minutes away, but that's still a long drive," said Howard. "That's a lot of gas that I have to give lots of money for and I have class every day. Being on campus is enough for me. My classes are right there. It was very convenient. Now that I don't have any housing it's going to be so hard to get there."

Howard and several other NCCU students reached out to ABC11 after receiving an email that stated the university is not able to provide them with housing before the first day of classes. The email also stated that the university is managing cancellations and no-shows to find available spaces to reassign students on the waitlist.

"It's nothing we can do about it. It is what it is, but it's kind of crazy," said incoming freshmen student Nyzir Bostick. "They can't get housing because there's a lot of freshmen coming in."

NCCU told ABC11 it has received 25.88% more applications for first-time, first-year students enrolling in Fall 2024 than for Fall 2023 at this time last year. All freshmen students who applied and made the required deposits by May 8, 2024, are guaranteed on-campus housing. As for continuing students, housing will be on a first-come, first served basis. The university has asked students to consider off-campus housing. If freshmen students choose to not attend, their housing will be re-allocated to continuing students.

"There are lot of students struggling looking for places to go," said senior student Eddie Powell.

It's a familiar situation for Powell who said this happened to him his sophomore year. He was lucky enough to find off-campus housing. He is urging the HBCU to build more dorms to accommodate the growing student body.

"They've been building a lot buildings for education and stuff. I do understand that, but then again there's no education if freshmen and sophomores aren't staying on campus to get that education," he said.

Classes start on Monday, August 19.