Western Manor Apartments and E.S. King Village are part of the family housing program offered to all NC State students, providing on-campus living alternatives to students with families, siblings or other special circumstances.
Family Housing was created after World War II as a response to the GI Bill, according to Tim Blair, a senior associate director of university housing. Many institutions and other universities have stopped providing family housing over the years. However, NC State has continued to do so and there is a wide range of individuals who can qualify for family housing.
“Family can be everything from siblings that are both here at NC State together, or it could be an international individual with children, or it could just be with a spouse,” Blair said. “So it’s kind of a wide definition.”
According to NC State’s Housing Website, these apartments offer 12 month leases and have monthly rates ranging from $650 to $1,025 depending on the type of apartment chosen and the utilities included. There are six different apartment options at E.S. King and three options at Western Manor.
Blair explained that family housing applications are looked at differently than regular housing applications.
“Because the fact that family can be defined very differently, we don’t have any kind of a first- or second-year kind of thing,” Blair said.
According to Blair, there are 235 available apartments at E.S. King and 113 apartments at Western Manor. Students can apply for those apartments through MyPack Portal under campus living.
Ruixue Wang, a graduate student studying economics, has been living with her boyfriend at Western Manor for the past year and a half. She said that family housing has been financially beneficial for her and her boyfriend, because they can split the rent.
Harris Jarman, a fourth-year studying history and a student maintenance worker for E.S. King, affirmed that family housing is a great option for families struggling financially.
Shaohu Zhang, a graduate student studying computer science, has lived at E.S. King for almost a year. He finds the community to be beneficial and enjoyable for him and his child.
“Western Manor and E.S. King are special for graduate students,” Zhang said. “It also has the playground and there are so many kids and other people here. The community is also nice and so is the safety.”
Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, the program coordinator for the AgBioFEWS Program at NC State, has been living at E.S. King for a month. She said that the on-campus living alternative helped her family financially and with accessible transportation.
“It has been awesome, actually, because I have a young daughter and it allows me to get to my office fast with free transportation and really quick service,” Rodriguez-Ward said. “It has actually been very helpful economically for the low rent and for transportation.”
Blair says that family housing is a great part of NC State’s history and is very helpful for students who want to live with their loved ones. In addition, it shows the university’s appreciation to the military.
“The fact that family housing came about as a response to help support our returning servicemen from World War II, you know that is just a really strong history for NC State,” Blair said. “The fact that NC State continued to provide family housing, even when there was a period of time where there was kind of a lull in the demand for family housing, has allowed us to now be in a situation where we continue to provide family housing and where other institutions are really struggling to figure out how to do that.”
For more information about family housing visit the university housing website.
