Letter: Four Hundred Residents Urge UMass Chancellor to Create More Student Housing on Campus

Compiled by Darcy DuMont and Kitty Axelson-Berry

The following letter was sent to UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes, the president of the UMass Student Government Association, the Amherst Town Council, and the Amherst Planning Board on March 25, 2026.

UMass Amherst’s new Strategic Plan paints a vision of education, innovation, and community stewardship, but it fails to address the most urgent issue facing our town: the shortage of on-campus student housing.

Because UMass has not kept up with housing demand:

• Amherst’s year-round population has declined to only 13,000 residents out of 40,000, as families lose out to student rental demand and have to leave.
• The elementary school enrollment has declined by half from its peak, as shown in the Housing Production Plan.
• The town’s tax base is strained, while 27,000 students live here for nine months a year without contributing directly to road repairs, public safety, and other services they rely upon.
• Inadequate PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) contributions leave Amherst covering an array of costs without fair support.

The obstacles to new dormitories have now lessened: public–private partnerships are permitted and student protests have highlighted the urgent need for additional on-campus housing, for example. There is no reason to delay building, renovating, or converting appropriate structures into more housing for students on campus.

We, the undersigned, urge UMass Amherst to:

• Recognize its responsibility to address the housing crisis in Amherst’s downtown, village centers, and neighborhoods.
• Commit to a concrete plan to create significant new on‑campus housing for its students.
• Relieve the pressure on Amherst to provide housing designed for students, so that it can support year-round housing for a year-round population that includes diverse ages and incomes.
• Support a sustainable and balanced population, strong schools, and a meaningful, transparent town–gown partnership.

UMass cannot continue to offload this burden onto Amherst. We call on the University to act now, building on-campus dormitories that reflect its values of stewardship, responsibility, and service to the common good. 

We call upon the Town of Amherst leadership to change its focus from expansion of student housing in town to ensuring that new and existing housing is prioritized for family, senior, low-income, and workforce residents.