The lack of on-campus housing at Florida A&M University is causing some students to consider transferring to another school.
"If I don't get housing and there's no real other option for me. I enjoy my school, my dean is very helpful, my peers are everything, so it's like why am I leaving?" said Adina-Simone.
800 returning students found out Friday they are currently on a waiting list to live on campus. Many of them are frustrated about being in limbo again after fighting for a spot to live on campus next fall.
Simone is a junior at Florida A&M University. She currently lives in on campus housing at Polkinghorne Village and is trying to move into Rattler Pointe next fall.
She said she was one of the first people to fill out her application in person, but she's on the wait list.
"They still keep telling me first come first serve. The computer authorized everything and they put everything in the computer, so it just doesn't make any sense how I was first, and I still don't have housing."
Simone is now one of 800 returning students waiting to get on campus housing.
Director of Housing Dr. Jennifer Wilder said 2,684 students can live on campus, but with a recent increase in students wanting to live on campus over the last year, it's still not enough.
"We had over 1,000 students that applied on the first day. We didn't have 1,000 beds available to assign on the first day," said Wilder.
Wilder said they've changed the application process and are now separating the wait list between returning students and first-time students to give them more time to find housing.
"We're able to tell our returners at this point in time, this is where you are so they're not waiting until June and July because that was what the complaint was. Well by the time we told them, everything was already leased, so you know now," said Wilder.
However, for students like Simone who cannot afford to live off campus, she doesn't have time to wait for the deadline to get off the wait list.
"I need to know sooner than later so I can make plans for myself as a student to make sure that I'm okay. As much as I love FAMU and this school, if I have to go somewhere else, I want to know before April 15th," said Simone.
After going through the application process himself, freshman Kaleb Winn understands Simone's frustrations.
"Pretty stressful because I didn't know if I was going to be homeless or not," said Winn.
Winn now lives off campus after finding out he was on the wait list for housing last summer.
"There not being enough spaces and then also people were registering super early from when they released it to allow people to register so it allowed an unfair advantage of getting housing," said Winn.
Wilder said there wasn't any unfair advantages and is asking people to be patient.
"That is not what happened. It really is based on space availability and the date and time we received the application."
Wilder said people could start to move off the waitlist before April 15, but if students do decide to remove themselves before then, they'll get their $200 deposit back.
