One of the big goals is to create workforce housing for the city. The developments, which total 150 units, will free up more housing stock for non-students to rent as the college vacates buildings currently being used for students and they move from private rentals into university housing. JPR’s Jane Vaughan spoke with UCC President Rachel Pokrandt about this project.
Jane Vaughan: A year ago, Umpqua Community College purchased three buildings in downtown Roseburg to convert them into student housing. And now renovations are well underway, and students are already living in one of the buildings. What was the motivation behind purchasing these buildings?
Rachel Pokrandt: First and foremost, we have some real signature programs here at UCC that rely on students coming in from outside. So those types of students who can't just drive here for class each day but need to come and live here. So that's sort of our on-campus reason, our college reason. And then, as a community, our little town of Roseburg is becoming this really cool hub for neat restaurants and retail, and it's really rejuvenating. And we wanted to be part of that energy and contribute to that energy. So putting our students in the downtown where they can be the workforce for the downtown and create that cool vibe that we all want in a downtown for wherever we live.
JV: So the college is working on renovations for these three buildings. What kind of housing are you making?
RP: We're trying to make sure that we have options for all different kinds of students. So we will have some more traditional, dorm-type facilities that are for traditional age students. So those are who are sort of under 25, that you would initially think of when you think of college housing. But there will also be some family apartment units as well because many of our students are older and have maybe kids and already have a couple of jobs. So creating stable housing for those students. And then we will have some more like really communal housing for students who really want a really, really affordable option. Then they can choose to be in that sort of five beds in one room kind of a thing. So lots of different price points to serve all of our different student bodies.
JV: For sure. And you mentioned the renovations. How were these purchases and the renovations paid for?
RP: So we used reserves that we have at the college. Some of it was just some savings we had during COVID when our campus was closed. So we usually send students on field trips and faculty on learning opportunities, and everybody was made to stay home. So we had a little bit of savings. And it's kind of a one-time thing that we're lucky to be able to make an investment in something, and this seemed like the right thing to spend those monies on.
JV: And what feedback have you gotten from the community about this change?
RP: Well, everybody's super excited. In an environment where we have a real housing crunch as a community in general, what this is going to do is it's going to get some of those students that we have at UCC, who are already in our housing units in the community, and get them into new housing that's owned by us. So these are all properties that didn't have housing before. So we are creating housing stock, therefore freeing up housing stock for the rest of the community. Apartments and things will become more available. And that's really important to our industry and our workforce, to have places for people to move to and to live to work at our hospitals and our manufacturing facilities. So the community as a whole sees that benefit of us adding housing stock into the market.
