Sacramento State broke ground in January 2025 on Student Housing III, now called Mt. Whitney Hall. The five-story facility will add 335 beds to the campus' North Village at a cost of $69 million. The project receives significant funding through California's Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program, which covers $41 million of the construction costs, according to Sacramento State.
The new housing development will enable Sacramento State to offer 285 affordable beds distributed across all eight residence halls once construction is complete in Fall 2026. KCRA reports the program helps provide student housing at no more than 30-50% of the area median income. Student Housing III will be located at the northeast corner of campus in a section of Parking Lot 2 near Riverview Hall and Desmond Hall.
Downtown Sacramento Sees Wave of New Development
Meanwhile, downtown Sacramento continues its transformation with the Monarch development at 805 R Street, which broke ground in May 2025. According to the Sacramento City Express, the $122 million project will bring 241 affordable housing units for working families to the R Street Corridor. The development represents a collaboration between the Capitol Area Development Authority and Mutual Housing California.
Monarch is being constructed on a former State of California storage site and features 82 studio units, 136 one-bedroom units, and 21 two-bedroom units for low-income households earning between 30% and 70% of the area median income. The project is part of a broader statewide effort to transform surplus public land into affordable housing, as reported by the Sacramento City Express.
State Buildings Converting to Housing
Three downtown Sacramento state office buildings along Capitol Mall are being prepared for conversion into affordable housing. The buildings include the Employment Development Department headquarters at 800 Capitol Mall, the EDD Solar Building at 751 N Street, and the State Personnel Board Building at 801 Capitol Mall, as detailed by Governor Newsom's Office. State tenants are expected to vacate these buildings in 2025, after which they'll be redeveloped into transit-oriented affordable housing.
The Employment Development Department building alone is expected to house 400 affordable housing units once the conversion is complete. Mayor Darrell Steinberg emphasized the potential for these conversions to create "a transit-friendly village with hundreds of new housing units" that will help transform downtown Sacramento, as per Governor Newsom's Office.
Regional Housing Challenges
The timing of these initiatives reflects Sacramento's urgent housing needs. As Per Sacramento Observer, the median cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Sacramento is $1,511 per month. Less than half of all living units in Sacramento are renter occupied, and according to Sacramento County's 2024 Affordable Housing Needs Report, 83% of extremely low-income households are paying rent with more than half of their monthly income.
Additional projects include the On Broadway affordable housing complex, a 140-unit development at the corner of 19th Street and Broadway. Built by nonprofit EAH Housing, this five-story complex continues construction after overcoming a three-alarm fire that damaged structural work in March 2024. The project will include retail space and residential community centers near the Broadway light rail station, according to Sacramento Observer.
Sacramento State had 600 students on its housing waiting list as of May 2024, highlighting the critical need for student housing options. The building is designed by Gensler and will be constructed by West Sacramento-based Brown Construction, whose president and CEO, Ron Brown, is a Sacramento State Construction Management alumnus.
