People's Park Housing
UC Berkeley is advancing a strategically important housing development at People’s Park to address urgent campus and community needs. This mixed-use project will significantly expand access to student housing, provide permanent supportive housing for unhoused individuals, and create new open space—all within a single, integrated development.
With construction now underway, the People’s Park Housing project reflects the university’s commitment to delivering thoughtfully designed, high-impact solutions to Berkeley’s housing challenges while honoring the legacy of the site.
Developed over the course of more than five years of extensive planning, public engagement, and rigorous environmental review, the People’s Park Housing project encorporates four fundamental objectives:
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More than 1,100 beds of apartment-style student housing, helping to meet rising demand for affordable, university-owned housing for undergraduate students. In August 2025, the campus announced that the student housing at People's Park will be named after Judith Heumann, disability rights leader.
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A separate permanent supportive and affordable housing building offering approximately 100 units and on-site services for formerly unhoused and low-income individuals. The supportive and affordable housing building will be developed and operated by a nonprofit partner who are experts in this area.
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Approximately 1.7 acres of revitalized green space—approximately 60% of the site.
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Create permanant commemorations of the site’s historical and cultural significance, developed in consultation with community stakeholders.
This development is a key component of UC Berkeley’s long-term strategy to address student housing shortages, support broader public needs, and make more effective use of university-owned land in the heart of the city. Strategic benefits of the project include:
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Expanding the campus’s housing inventory, easing pressure on the local rental market and helping students find places to live closer to campus.
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Delivering permanent supportive and affordable housing in collaboration with trusted partners, helping to reduce homelessness in the city of Berkeley.
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Preserving public access and honoring site history, through the creation of a thoughtfully designed landscaped spaces that reflect the site’s legacy.
To learn more about the project scope, timeline, design elements, and community engagement efforts, please visit the People’s Park Housing website.
People's Park Housing: Project Renderings
Developed over the course of more than five years of extensive planning, public engagement, and rigorous environmental review, UC Berkeley's plans for People's Park incorporate four fundamental objectives: 1) urgently needed student housing for more than 1,100 undergraduates; 2) permanent supportive housing for more than 100 unhoused and extremely low-income persons; 3) preserve and revitalize more than 60% of the site as public park space; and 4) create permanent commemorations of the site's history.
The north wing features 11 floors of student apartments over a ground floor and a partial basement level. The height of the north wing varies from 127 feet, up to 154 feet where there is a small mechanical room with elevator and building systems on the roof.
The building will incorporate environmentally friendly design and operations, promote the efficient use of energy, water, and other resources, and incorporate technologies that reduce the overall impact of the building. Rooftop solar panels will sustainably support the building's power needs.
The design of this project, and in particular the revitalized 1.7-acre park, will recognize the many historic chapters that, together, comprise the legacy of this site through a commemoration program.
Through our multiyear public engagement process for this project, we've talked with hundreds of people and listened to their ideas on how to most appropriately commemorate the storied history of the site, from land originally inhabited by native peoples thousands of years ago, to turn-of-the-century residential housing development, and through the protests of the 1960s and the subsequent creation of a park, to today.
The supportive housing at People's Park will be a separate building from the student housing, and will include approximately 100 apartments.
Supportive housing is a vital link in the chain from unhoused, to housed, that allows people to live in dignity in their communities.
The campus will entrust the facility's daily operations and services to experts in this area and will not itself be providing supportive housing. We have made the commitment to provide land for the facility and will partner with a third party development firm to develop and operate the supportive housing component.
The campus is making a long-term commitment to the supportive housing residents, including creating regular internship opportunities for students in public health and social welfare to work with service providers.
