SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco State University is moving forward with their plans of a housing expansion to accommodate the increasing influx of students at the school. The expansion will stretch down the adjacent Holloway Avenue, past 19th Avenue.

School officials have stated that they are hoping to select a developer for the project by the end of this year and have preliminary construction started by 2017. Among the top four firms considered as strong candidates to help SFSU meet their goals are Balfour Beatty Campus Solutions and The Integral Group LLC.

Off-campus housing options like Parkmerced can prove inconvenient for financially-strapped students.
Off-campus housing options like Parkmerced can prove inconvenient for financially-strapped students.

Approximately half of all first-year students and 13 percent of all undergraduates live on campus at SFSU. With a student undergraduate population of 25,800, SFSU can only accommodate housing for up to 3,500 students as it stands. With the housing expansion, that number would increase to about 4,500.

In the past, students have found it difficult to cope with the limited, and expensive, housing situation at the school and have found that even commuting far off-campus in an effort to save money yields its own drawbacks.

According to the College Board, room/board costs last year at San Francisco State started at $13,400, more than twice the tuition rates. The current housing options offered on campus include the Towers and Village at Centennial Square, University Park North and South, and the residential halls of Mary Park and Mary Ward. Mary Park and Mary Ward are currently the cheapest housing options on campus, but shared rooms in those dorms those can cost students around $1,300 a month.

Rent for an average one-bedroom apartment on campus in the nearby neighborhood of Parkmerced can cost close to $2,000 per month.

There is no word yet on the projected budget for the Holloway Avenue expansion or a start date.