The University of California, Santa Cruz, is planning to break ground soon on a project on a new child care center and new housing for students with families.
In the project’s first phase, the university will build 120 new two-bedroom apartments for students with families, a community room, and a child care center serving up to 140 children of faculty, staff, and students.
The second phase calls for removing aging buildings along Heller Drive so that UC Santa Cruz can construct housing for up to 3,000 students.
“We have an urgent need to expand child care support and provide more student housing, and I am thrilled to see this project reach this critical milestone,” Chancellor Cynthia Larive said.
The child care center and the family student housing community are expected to open in late 2025, which will then enable the campus to move forward on the second phase of the project.
The university anticipates that the first new buildings along Heller will be completed in fall 2028.
The new family student housing community will be built across the street from existing employee housing, close to a local elementary school, and near the main campus entrance. The site will include a community center and garden, an early education center, a maintenance building, and a wastewater treatment facility that are all designed to meet LEED Silver certification.
UC Santa Cruz provides housing for more than 9,300 students–more than half of its undergraduate student body and the second-highest percentage within the UC system. However, the Santa Cruz region, like much of California, is in a severe housing crisis, and this project will enable the university to build new campus housing and expand childcare services.
The new child care center will roughly double the capacity of the existing facility.
