18 hours Ago By EMMA LAWSON [email protected]
Editor’s note: College Station's impending housing crisis, as well as the housing conflict between residents and college students, is The Eagle’s No. 8 news story of 2024. This is part of a daily series of the top 10 stories in Bryan-College Station and the Brazos Valley this year.
Stories will appear daily with No. 1 running in the Dec. 31 edition.
With over 72,000 Texas A&M University students enrolled at the College Station campus and around 12,000 beds available on campus, a record-breaking number of students were left to find housing off-campus in 2024, amidst College Station’s impending housing crisis. According to an existing conditions report by the city of College Station, nearly 30% of households in College Station are “cost burdened” with more than 50% of those being “severely cost burdened.” A household is considered cost-burdened when more than 30% of its income is spent on housing; a household is considered severely cost-burdened when more than 50% is spent on housing.
Since 2015, the median home price has increased by 75% since 2015 while wages have only increased by 25%. Furthermore, the report projected a housing supply shortage by 2030. In order to tackle the impending housing crisis, the Housing Action Plan Steering Committee was created by the city to develop an action plan.
Consisting of 13 College Station citizens, the committee gathered community feedback through three general housing surveys: a survey for College Station residents, a survey for college students and a survey for businesses and organizations. They received 700 citizen responses, 1,600 student responses and 50 employer responses. Middle housing options, including duplexes, condos and townhouses were found to be noticeably absent from the city, according to the report.
Thus, one of the solutions proposed by the action plan is to create and incentivize more diverse housing types, something the College Station City Council has been keeping in mind during recent meetings, including the approval of more middle housing options off Old Wellborn Road and for 16 acres off Rock Prairie Road. David Brower, community development analyst for College Station, previously said they were interested in density incentives for developers within the city. “This is done in lots of cities throughout the country,” he previously told The Eagle .
“So, if this was an area you could build, our rule is that you can’t go more than four stories, but for every additional story that you want to build — up to 20 — [developers will] either provide affordable units or provide funding into an affordable housing fund that then will help make units somewhere else.” The other solution proposed by the Housing Action Plan is to incentivize the preservation of affordable housing to current and future community members. One of the most commonly discussed housing limiters includes the no-more-than-four ordinance, a city ordinance that prevents more than four unrelated individuals from living in the same dwelling together.
Many Texas A&M students have spoken out against the ordinance in the past and offered alternative methods to control housing, including a two-per-bedroom housing model. While students are interested in sharing apartments to create more affordable houses, citizens argue this raises housing prices for nearby neighborhoods and students can damage integrity by being bad neighbors. The city also offers two zoning classifications to assist in housing matters: the Restricted Occupancy Overlay, or ROO, and the High Occupancy Overlay, or HOO.
A ROO limits the no-more-than-four ordinance further so no more than two unrelated individuals can live in a single dwelling while a HOO creates a possible exception to the no-more-than-four ordinance to allow occupancy levels beyond the citywide standard. These ordinances have been a point of contention for students and residents. Residents fear future “Ag-Shacks,” a term given to an apartment or dwelling that houses an unsafe amount of students at higher prices that become more affordable by students when split many ways.
According to the report, the median sales price for a non-new construction home in 2023 was $389,000 in College Station. To tackle misinformation on housing and educate students new to the city, Texas A&M established an off-campus student service department in late 2023 . Throughout 2024, the department spoke at many council meetings about its efforts, including the “Live With Integrity” campaign that taught the no-more-than-four ordinance by using social media, signs on-campus and emails.
While college students have taken a stand against the ordinance, the city council has shown no immediate signs of changing the no-more-than-four ordinance. In November 2024, the Student Government Association traveled to the Texas State Senate to raise awareness on College Station’s housing issues and possibly collaborate on an end to housing issues. “We are not asking that there is no limitation on occupancy, but we ask that there would be removals of restrictions in regards to relatedness or any other factor, like age or occupation, that would limit and be specifically catered toward students,” Cade Coppinger, student body president, previously said.
“The committee was specifically looking at affordable housing in Texas and we talked about the higher education affordable housing crisis we’ve seen within College Station and college towns.” The SGA will continue to work on the proposed piece of legislation and hope to have it filed and ready for consideration in the spring of 2025..
