Boise State closes student apartments as low-cost housing options shrink

On the corner of Boise Avenue and Beacon Street, the University Manor apartments sit empty. Shrubbery creeps over garden-level windows, a sign on the mailbox reads “No need to deliver mail” and wooden chairs crowd the living room of a ground-floor unit. 

For more than 50 years, the brick building housed hundreds of students, many drawn by rent far below other housing near campus.

In April 2024, students living in University Manor received an email informing them they would only be eligible to renew their lease for one final year — effectively eliminating one of the university’s last low-cost housing options. 

Kate Benefield, a graduate student who had called the building home since 2018, said she felt “dismissed” by how the closure was communicated.

“It was a horrible situation,” Benefield said. “That was my home for seven years, and then all of a sudden we get an email saying you have to move. There was no description of why we had to move, and really no help in making that transition.” 

Benefield and her partner, Makale Fitzgerald, reached out to the Apartments Office for guidance on finding alternative housing. They were directed to check the available apartments listing each week, but none ever became available. 

“Going from an affordable housing option like Manor to now trying to find something else in that price range, we’re risking safety,” Benefield said. “We were not going to find anything that cheap and [close] to the school.”

As a participant in the Graduate Assistantship program, Benefield said she could not seek outside employment, limiting her ability to supplement her income past university stipends and narrowing available housing options.

“I was told by the apartment lead there was going to be a couple [of apartments] available after Christmas Break, but their website went down for weeks and we were not alerted of that,” Benefield said. “Every week, we were checking that website and it was up in the air for the longest time. Finally, in February, we gave up.”

The couple eventually secured off-campus housing after Fitzgerald found a new job. Their new one-bedroom apartment costs more than double the $825 monthly rent they paid for their two-bedroom unit at University Manor in its final year. 

“I feel like we were dragged along with false hope that we would get into student housing,” Fitzgerald said. “That was really frustrating. [If the apartment leads] had told us, ‘Options are very slim, you should probably look elsewhere,’ that might have been better.” 

Kylie Nelson, an undergraduate student who lived in University Manor during her sophomore and junior year, described similar frustrations. 

“I think a lot of the [apartment staff] thought the property doesn’t matter anymore because students won’t be living there anymore, so it wasn’t as big of a priority as other apartment complexes were,” Nelson said. “If they weren’t transparent with the people living there, maybe they also weren’t transparent with the other staff and they had no idea what to expect either.”

Nelson added the office was “very uninvolved” throughout the transition. She described a lack of care from the maintenance team, mail going missing and various miscommunications with staff throughout her final year living on the property. 

Months before her move-out date, an apartment staff member knocked on her door to ask why she was still occupying the unit. Despite her lease running through the end of May, the university stopped charging her rent for more than three months, leaving her to pay a lump sum as move-out neared.

“We offered as many resources and support as we could for these students,” Andi Fielder, apartments property manager, said. “There were maybe only a dozen [students] still living on the property by December.”

“It was such a sudden shift that we wanted to make sure they felt supported,” Verentize Beltran, associate director of operations, added. “If any students wanted to move over [to University Village and University Heights], we offered that as well. As soon as units open, we’ll post it.”

When The Arbiter asked about the availability of alternative university apartment options at the time of the closure, Beltran said she did not remember. 

While the university never explicitly gave tenants a reason for the closure, rumors circulated throughout the community. Benefield was told the building would be transformed into Section 8 housing or sold, and Nelson heard conflicting explanations.

“We heard through the grapevine from someone in the [Apartments Office] that there was lead in the paint. That could’ve been the reasoning, but it was never confirmed,” Nelson said. “I’ve also heard it could become a new apartment complex or a new classroom. It’s been very vague — I don’t think anyone really knows. I drive by it all the time and never see any construction.” 

Lynda Tieck, senior director of Housing and Residence Life, attributes the closure to safety and facility concerns associated with the aging building. 

“[At University Manor], you know what you’re paying for — not a lot. It needs new carpet, it needs new appliances, it needs new plumbing, it needs a lot. If we were to [make these changes], it would not be cheap,” Tieck said. 

According to Tieck, the garden-level units of Manor lack the technical egress required for safe exit in the event of a fire. Severe structural issues with the roof, including a hole Tieck compares to an “unwanted skylight,” would cost nearly half a million dollars to repair.

“If we raise the costs to buy a roof and do the egress, it’s no longer affordable,” Tieck said. “We’re not even talking about [renovating the complex] to a level where people are like ‘Oh, this is nice.’ This would just be meeting basic needs.”

The university continues to own the property and is preparing the complex for demolition, though it has not yet determined who will cover the cost. Tieck said Housing and Residence Life is in conversation with Campus Operations to decide which department will take on the expense, adding the site could potentially be repurposed as additional parking.

In 2023, Boise State sold University Park, a 47-unit complex in the Lusk District, to the city for over $8 million. Plans to convert the property into supportive housing were abandoned after officials deemed rehabilitation costs too high.

With Manor closed and University Park sold, only two of the university’s original four apartment-style housing options remain.

As affordable housing options become slimmer, the line of eligibility narrows, too.

Beginning in January 2026, only graduate students enrolled in at least 9 credits or undergraduates with dependents, defined as a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent or sibling are eligible to live in university apartments. 

Previously, eligibility was much broader. Students could qualify by meeting just one of several criteria, such as having sophomore standing, being at least 20 years old, heading a household with dependents or living in campus housing for two consecutive semesters.

Fielder said Housing and Residence Life has historically prioritized graduate students and students with families for apartment housing, with the new policy allowing them to better focus on those demographics. Tieck added that these changes create additional housing opportunities for international students, who often face barriers leasing off-campus. 

For some students, the loss of Manor and eligibility changes reflect a broader shift away from affordable, university-managed housing. 

“I think Boise State focuses super hard on freshman housing in hopes that private contractors continue building sophomore and upperclassmen housing, like Verve or The 208,” said Ethan Lewis, an alumnus who lived in University Village for two years.

In fall of 2024, Lewis’ first-floor apartment flooded not once, but twice. After placing a work order to address the flood, university maintenance arrived a few hours later, but damage was already done. The flood, caused by what Lewis believes to be a “lack of maintenance” and a faulty sewage system, damaged a few of his personal items and “quite a bit” of his roommate’s belongings.

Lewis and his roommate were displaced to a vacant room in Osprey for a week and before being moved to the third floor of University Village.

Despite these challenges, Lewis said affordability is what made living in university-owned apartments valuable.

“[Living at University Village], I [could] work a part-time job and still live,” he said. “I wish there was more planning from Boise State to try and find room for more sophomore and above housing.”

Off-campus student apartment complexes typically charge more than $700 per room in a shared apartment, while a two-bedroom apartment unit in University Village currently costs $1,184 total. Other on-campus options, such as The Osprey and University Suites, carry similarly high price tags to off-campus options and do not offer lease renewals beyond the academic year.

The university has no current plans to build additional apartment-style housing, however Tieck said her team is considering reclassifying Jade, the University Square dorm closest to University Village, into family and graduate student housing once its bond is paid off in 2028 or 2029.

“It kind of hurts a little bit,” Fitzgerald said of seeing the Manor apartments remain vacant. “If it was being used for Section 8 housing or women from domestic violence backgrounds, I’d be all for it. But seeing it sit there for over eight months, it’s hard.”