\nST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2013 Students at Flagler College are planning a protest Friday afternoon over housing concerns they say are leaving some upperclassmen scrambling for affordable living options.<\/p>\n
The demonstration is expected to take place on campus in St. Augustine, where frustration has been building over a policy requiring freshmen and sophomores to live on campus.<\/p>\n
Students organizing the protest say the requirement has reduced housing availability for juniors and seniors, forcing many to search for off-campus options in a tight and increasingly expensive rental market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like the policy was put in place without a realistic plan for how it would impact the rest of the student body,\u201d one student said in a statement shared with News4JAX. \u201cStudents are trying to balance academics, athletics, and jobs, and this added uncertainty about where they will live is making it even more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
College officials, however, say no student who applied for on-campus housing by the deadline is without a place to live.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Vice President for Marketing and Communications Carol Branson said every student who submitted a housing application and deposit by March 22, after an initial Feb. 9 deadline, has been assigned on-campus housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery student who applied and deposited for on-campus housing by Sunday, March 22, 2026, has been placed,\u201d Branson said, noting some students were briefly waitlisted due to higher-than-expected demand but have since been assigned rooms.<\/p>\n
Branson also said the college is not over capacity and is continuing to manage room assignments as enrollment is finalized. She added that the $500 housing deposit is not forfeited and is applied to students\u2019 account balances.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, every student who applied and deposited \u2026 has been assigned a bed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Despite those assurances, some students say concerns remain about long-term housing availability and affordability, particularly for those who may not have secured housing early or who prefer to live off campus.<\/p>\n
The protest aims to bring attention to those concerns and push for additional housing solutions or policy adjustments.<\/p>\n
The situation reflects broader housing pressures in St. Augustine, where limited inventory and rising costs have made it more difficult for renters, including college students, to find affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Students say they hope Friday\u2019s protest will prompt further dialogue with college leaders and lead to clearer plans to ensure stable housing options for all class years.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2013 Students at Flagler College are planning a protest Friday afternoon over housing concerns they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1571,113,95437,116,118,117,2159,2663],"class_list":["post-208447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-affordable-housing","tag-education","tag-flagler-college","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-money","tag-st-augustine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}