CSULB Residence Hall Misses Move-In Date

In 2024, California State University, Long Beach announced the construction of La Playa Hall; a new student housing complex located within the Hillside Village residential community.

The project was funded in part through California’s Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program, as a way of expanding affordable housing for public higher education campuses across the state. Designed to house 424 students, the new $126.4M housing complex was scheduled to be fully completed and ready for students to start moving in on Aug. 23.

On Saturday, Aug. 29, KABC-TV reported that some students have begun moving into the facility.

“First, let me say that as a parent of a high schooler who will be going to college soon, I have tremendous empathy for how you might be feeling,” said CSULB Student Affairs Vice President Dr. Beth Lesen, in an official press release issued on Aug. 24. “I know how disappointing this has been and I’m sorry for the stress and anxiety this situation has caused. Most of you have been so gracious and patient and we’re very grateful to you for that.”

Lesen continued: “We expected everything to be settled in time to move everyone in. That obviously didn’t happen. We have been assured that we’re very close and should receive clearance to move everyone imminently, but we do not have a more specific timeline than that and I don’t want to speculate and offer information that might not be accurate.”

Following the sudden announcement, CSULB officials have been working to temporarily accommodate students that have been affected or displaced by the delay of La Playa Hall’s opening.

According to the press release from CSULB, students who were set to move into La Playa Hall have been provided with temporary arrangements in nearby hotels, while construction and final inspections continue. In addition, the university stated it will refund all housing charges from Aug. 20 until the day students are settled into their assigned rooms, as well as provide moving assistance once the student housing complex opens.

Another temporary accommodation the university is providing is a shuttle service between the hotels and campus, with shuttles operating daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. with an estimated arrival time of 30 minutes.

Despite CSULB’s temporary arrangements, the announcement of La Playa Hall’s delay has been met with frustration online from students who had expected to move into their assigned rooms at the start of the fall 2026 semester.

“This is so frustrating but trying to stay positive,” commented Leigh Quijada on Facebook. “We were scheduled to move in at 2 p.m., hopefully more info will be shared and how the hotels are working.”

“My son was expecting to move in this morning and was told to go to the hotel,” said Amaris Hossli on Facebook. “It was a surprise to him, too!”

Beachcomber has reached out to CSULB for comment on the unexpected delay. According to the university’s associate vice president, chief communications & brand officer, Jeff Cook, while the new student residence does not have a set opening date at this time, the temporary arrangements provided for students should not last more than a week.

"Despite the extraordinary efforts of our construction partners and university teams, our new La Playa residence hall was not ready for students to move in on Sunday, August 23, as anticipated,” said Cook. “We do not yet have a confirmed date for move-in, but residents were advised that the interim arrangements would likely be in place for approximately one week."

For more information on CSULB’s La Playa Hall, you can visit the university’s official website at https://www.csulb.edu/student-affairs/student-housing/la-playa.

[Editor Note: This story was updated Aug. 29 to reflect that students began moving into La Playa Hall.]