By Amey DiSisto
Sitting on the cusp of the Hillsborough River is a neighborhood teeming with houses: quaint ranch-style homes with a plethora of tropical hues and alleys connecting their side streets — all only a minute away from downtown Tampa. These homes have been the foundation of Tampa Bay and have been around since the 1950s. Families and communities have been growing in these neighborhoods long before the formation of The University of Tampa or even the downtown Tampa district as residents know it.
In the 2023-2024 academic year, UTampa had a record number of 11,047 undergraduate and graduate students.
With the influx of students coming to UTampa, it raises the question of where the university should house them all. With international students and those with the least amount of credits receiving higher priority for on-campus housing, upperclassmen are pushed towards off-campus accommodations — such as those nearby neighborhoods or apartments.
In one of the many quiet, cottage-like houses on a street behind the university, four senior UTampa girls sprawled out on their couch. They have the typical “college house”: cars parked out front with university parking passes on display, pictures of the girls adorning the walls inside, and textbooks piling up on the kitchen table.
There was no “start” to the conversation; it just began.
Samantha Passuello spoke first, saying that the girls lived in the house for three months and that they “were looking for a house for, like, three months. Just a four bedroom house. Just like looking everywhere affordable. I feel like price was our initial thing.” There was a murmur of agreement amongst the girls.
Isabel Van Regenmorter, who lived in a predominantly student apartment before this house, chipped in next, describing her experience living amongst non-college students, “It’s just, like, I feel like we’re living very different lifestyles, and we’re like, in the transition. Yeah, everyone minds their own business, which I like.”
Passuello responded, “I also think it’s nice because our neighbor across the street, she has three kids. She lives there and she’s lived there for 10 years. Miss Perkins next door, she has lived here for her entire life. So, like, that’s kind of reassuring, knowing that these people have lived here their entire lives.”
The strings leading these students to these neighborhoods are not shocking; students are infamous for needing budget-friendly choices, but how do these strings become entangled? Do community members welcome students, or do they feel as though their homes are becoming too crowded?
Situated in a little white house with green shutters, sandwiched between two groups of college students, Rhonda had seen it all. Her home was filled with laughter long before The University of Tampa was known on a national level. Rhonda was not the first to live in this house; her great-grandmother came first, then her grandmother, who was laid to rest last January, and now Rhonda splits her time between the Washington, D.C., area and visiting her mother, who lives in the home full-time.
“My grandmother’s [house] is the only original owner left,” Rhonda said. “It was a lot of elders who were original owners who passed away. Not sure about whether it was passed down to their family members, but I do know other blocks where my friends [lived], who, when their parents passed away, they sold.”
She took a deep sigh, seemingly going over generations of memories in her head. Rhonda gave a quick smile and explained how she lived right on the other side of the interstate. She talked about the neighbors she had and which ones passed down their homes to the next generation and which ones sold the houses away.
She talked about how she didn’t know how or why the students were finding their way over to the neighborhood. Sure, the houses were close to campus, but with the wealth she saw coming from UTampa, she was shocked that students were going to the small homes instead of the more modern apartments that have been popping up around the city.
Rhonda said, “Because we [residents and students] are from two different worlds, what we do see and know is that UT is not cheap, and it’s a lot of affluent students coming from affluent families.”
The neighbors did not mind the students coming into their neighborhood, but they did wonder if UTampa was offering any other solution to the student housing crisis. On a broader scale, most Tampa natives are finding an issue with gentrification.
“The gripe is gentrification, period. I don’t think that’s necessarily on the students,” Ronda said. “It’s not the students’ fault. I personally don’t mind, as long as they are respectful.”
Rhonda shrugged. There was nothing she felt like she could do — people needed to live somewhere. She recalled a story of a particular group of UTampa boys who were disrespectful and rude, throwing around vulgarities and racial slurs. She mentioned that this was the only time neighbors came together “against” the students. It wasn’t that the university needed to screen the students but that students had to acknowledge that they were in someone else’s neighborhood and act accordingly.
The main point found by students and residents is simple: Just be respectful. The students have been relocated to neighborhoods off campus both in an effort to be independent and because UTampa lacks the residential space for them. The residents who have lived there for years don’t want to move and want to continue to live their lives as usual.
The sun sets on the Hillsborough River, shining between the buildings of The University of Tampa. On a quiet street in a small neighborhood nestled behind UTampa, the streetlights turn on — illuminating the homes of the lifelong residents and students alike.
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Photo by Liv Dennis.