For New & Prospective Berkeley Faculty

Objective and Eligibility

Limited faculty rental housing is situated on the Clark Kerr Campus, approximately ¼ mile southeast of the main campus. The Clark Kerr Campus Faculty Apartments are solely for new, tenured and tenure-track UC Berkeley faculty members. It’s meant as transitional housing. Waiting lists are compiled by the semester in which new faculty members are hired (in chronological order of having accepted their job offers) and the names expire from the list after the semester of initial hire. Due to the small number of units, housing in the Clark Kerr Campus Faculty Apartments is not guaranteed.

No pets are allowed in University Housing, other than medically-documented service or emotional-support animals.

Getting on the Waiting List

New faculty with pet-free households who have accepted their hiring offers should contact Becky White to be placed on the waiting list: beckywhite@berkeley.edu; (510) 981-9278. Note: Due to Becky's retirement, you will be directed to the new Faculty Housing Counselor for your assistance sometime in summer 2023.

Apartments and Amenities

There are 26 unfurnished apartments: Two of them are in a duplex that includes a two-bedroom, one bathroom unit and a three-bedroom, bath-and-a-half unit. The remaining 24 apartments are in a handsome, restored building that once served as an auditorium. This main building has 4 apartments that are one bedroom, one bathroom. The other 20 units have two bedrooms and one bathroom.

Almost every unit is different from the others: some are two-level, townhouse style, some are handicapped-equipped, some overlook a courtyard that is private to the apartments and has a lawn area and BBQs. Several entrances around the building serve clusters of apartments, although one unit has its own exterior entrance not shared with any other units. Square footages vary widely, although most units range between 750 – 850 square feet.

There are two, small debit-card operated laundry rooms, each in a separate part of the main building. One has a single washer and a single dryer. The other has two washers and two dryers. Residents in the duplex may use the laundry rooms in the main building; the duplex does not have laundry facilities. In-unit washer/dryers cannot be installed as they would overload the plumbing in this historic site.

Kitchens include dishwasher and disposal, electric range and oven, and full-sized refrigerator. Each apartment has baseboard heaters controlled by the occupant. There is no air conditioning (cooling system), which is very common in our typically mild climate.

Contract Terms

Tenancy is month-to-month with a maximum limit coordinated with the University’s Academic Calendar. For example, regardless of the rental starting date, a faculty member hired effective January 1, 2024, will have a maximum occupancy date ending on December 31, 2025. Similarly, a faculty member hired effective July 1, 2024, will have a maximum tenancy ending on June 30, 2026.

Rental Rates

Rates for the Academic Year 2023-24 range from:

• $1800 - $2120 for one-bedroom apartments.

• $2775 - $3275 for the two-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartments in the main building.

• $3700 for the two-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment in the duplex, which includes a single-car garage, storage cage, and dedicated lawn and patio space.

• $4030 for the three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment in the duplex, which includes a single-car garage, storage cage, and dedicated lawn and patio space.

Rents include all utilities and high speed internet. Rents do not include the cost of parking on the uncovered adjacent parking pad. A University parking permit (F or C permit) is required. Parking permit rates for Academic Year 2023-24 are: F permit, $133.10/month, and C permit, $187/month. Clark Kerr residents may not obtain Residential Parking Permits per a City/University agreement. Parking permit charges and apartment rents are subject to an annual increase each July.

The 2023-24 deposit is $400 and is refundable provided the apartment is vacated in good condition. If you are offered a unit, you will be emailed a floor plan.

Videos/Floor Plans

There are videos of four of the apartments to show samples of some of the floor plans.

Apt Z: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hDV1TVeIk8 this unit is in the duplex and is the only 3-bedroom apartment

Apt B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHjATS95xbE this is in the main building

Apt A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4cy2_bHEnw this is in the main building

Apt G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auhEZnVkpR8 this is in the main building (Please note that at the time of the filming, this apartment had not yet been refurbished.)

Revised 06/25/2023

If you have read the information in the tab titled UNIVERSITY HOUSING, you will already know that the University operates a small complex of faculty apartments on its Clark Kerr Campus (CK), located approximately ¼ mile to the southeast of the main Berkeley campus. The waiting list of new faculty for fall 2020 is much longer than anticipated vacancies, unfortunately -- there are only 26 units total. If you are pet-free and have accepted the Berkeley offer, please contact Becky White, beckywhite@berkeley.edu, or telephone (510) 981-9278. Please be aware that an offer of rental housing is not guaranteed. I regret there are no other University-provided rentals for faculty unless one of the 3 rental units in the University Terrace (UT) complex is vacated, and current UT residents have maximum occupancy dates that end in summer 2024 and 2025.

If nothing materializes at CK for you, please know that by necessity most new faculty must seek rental housing in or near Berkeley, and my support (and the support of my successor) expedites those searches. Even if your goal is to purchase a home, that can take time, plus you may want to get acquainted with the various communities before deciding where to buy. I have had great success with helping new faculty secure housing quickly, often within a week or two of their arrival in Berkeley.

Here, I will describe an approach for your rental house-hunt so you will have some tools at hand to make the search process easier. I apologize for the length of this post, but there is a lot of information to impart!

In the current rental market, landlords/property managers usually want to meet the prospective tenants in person. Over the past several years, there have always been plenty of qualified prospects looking for housing. By and large, in the East Bay Area (Berkeley and nearby communities) no Realtors or real estate agents handle rentals to any significant degree -- it will be up to you to examine rental advertisements and plan which rentals to tour and decide which rentals you want to apply to.

The most important thing for you to know about rental housing is that our rental market is very immediate. Most unfurnished rentals are advertised at the point at which they are empty and ready to go! There is such a thing as looking too early; thus you cannot back up the business of contacting landlords far in advance of when you want to begin paying rent.

One exception is sabbatical rentals, which quite often are listed well in advance of availability. These would be the fully-furnished dwellings of (most often) faculty members who will be going away for a semester or the academic year and want a responsible party to rent their home or apartment while they are on sabbatical. Such rentals would require you to store your own furniture and they are usually very finite in terms of lease length. You might be unhappy to have to move again in such short order. SabbaticalHomes.com is a resource for such rentals.

Large, newer apartment complexes are another exception. These often have leasing offices on site. Many such buildings may not be suitable for faculty. There are several in downtown Berkeley that are attractive to undergraduate students who rent with two or more roommates per bedroom. A few complexes cater to professionals in academia and tech, and we can discuss these if of interest to you. This could be a relatively easy way to secure your rental housing long-distance, although rents in new buildings tend to be expensive ($4,000+ for a two-bedroom apartment), and many new faculty prefer smaller apartment buildings or duplexes or single-family homes.

More typically, an effective and common strategy would be for you to arrange some short-term accommodation (hotel, motel, friend, relative, Air BnB) so you have a place to stay while you house-hunt. Begin to contact landlords no more than approximately ten days - one week prior to your arrival so as to have viewing appointments lined up. (I can assist with this process by suggesting likely rentals for you to consider.) Some faculty make a special trip specifically to house-hunt a month or more ahead of moving (be prepared to pay some advance rent); others wait until just before they begin work to start looking.

By making advance viewing appointments, you will have rentals to see right away upon arrival and you can apply for any that you like. This is a good way to become acquainted with the variety of neighborhoods in the East Bay Area (Berkeley and neighboring communities). In addition, sometimes (particularly if the rental is managed by a property management firm) you can fill out an online application and submit it in advance of your viewing appointment. After getting here, you would then continue to update yourself with fresh rental information and appointments until you secure the housing.

You are always welcome to contact me if you have questions about a neighborhood or even a particular rental or landlord. I have over 30 years of experience in the field of local rental housing, and many times I have ‘insider’ knowledge that may be helpful to you. Plus, if you will be so kind as to give me an idea of your rental parameters (maximum rent, minimum number of bedrooms, thoughts on commuting, and any ‘must-haves’ on your list), I can keep you in mind if I know when you will be arriving (either for a house-hunt visit or arriving to start work), since I peruse the rental market daily and will forward you links to rental listings I think may be a good match.

I have found that it pays to script for yourself a short “advertisement” that you email or leave as a phone message to encourage a reply and a viewing appointment. Something along the lines of who you are (the fact that you will be a faculty member at Cal is definitely a plus), a little description of anyone else in your household – nothing more than 3 or 4 sentences – and how to get in touch with you, of course.

Below please find some rental listing resources. Even though it is likely too early in the process to begin searching seriously, it can be useful to have a quick browse now and then so you gain some familiarity with the rental market. Remember that once I know your criteria and once you are ready to search in earnest, I will be examining resources with you in mind so we will be collaborating on your rental search.

Cal Rentals is the University’s rental listing service. Recently, it has become much more oriented to students. Although it is no longer the resource for faculty that it once was, occasionally I do see “gems” listed and I browse the rentals on this site regularly. Since the service is for current employees and students who have a ‘CAL Net ID’, please follow the instructions for obtaining a guest account: https://och.berkeley.edu/registration, and select 'Guest House Hunters.'

Next is the heavy-hitter in the rental listing business, CraigsList. Landlords love the ease with which to upload text and photos, and they especially love that it is free to list. Here's how to access our local CraigsList for listings: sfbay.craigslist.org, select eby, then apts/housing. You can select by neighborhood and/or city, rent limit, and the minimum number of bedrooms. This is very popular with landlords for listing rentals, and new rentals come on the market daily. Unfortunately, it is also popular with scam artists who try to get money sent to them and who do not have a rental, or they are in the business of stealing identities. Please check with me if you have any doubts about what information is being requested from you. (Zillow, a similar rental listing service, seems to do a better job of vetting the advertisers of the rentals, but I have also caught scams on this site.)

Here are some property management firms that list their available rentals on their websites:

Discovery Investments

All East Bay Properties

Kasa Properties

A.S.K. Rentals

Shaw Properties

Cedar Properties

K and S

Lapham Company 

Premium Properties 

SG Real Estate

The focus of these firms tends to be rentals west of the Berkeley-Oakland hills. If you have an interest in the suburban communities east of the hills (known as the "Lamorinda" area, plus Walnut Creek), please let me know so I can provide you additional information.

Lastly, you will probably see references to neighborhoods that are unfamiliar to you. To assist with your familiarization of the area, please find the tab on this site titled "SOME AREAS" (also, posted immediately below). And, here is a zoomable map -- http://tinyurl.com/jqh3v6h -- that more or less corresponds to the descriptions of the neighborhood boundaries.

Please take a look at the University resources available to faculty who are parents: http://ofew.berkeley.edu/welfare/families. If you are interested in the University child care services, and if you do not hear from ECEP (Early Childhood Education Program) in a timely manner regarding your waiting list status, contact the OFEW (Office for Faculty Equity & Welfare) at ofew@berkeley.edu or call 510-642-1935.

Bananas child care referrals is a fantastic resource.

I recommend subscribing to the BPN, Berkeley Parents' Network, and you can do this now. BPN started as a way for UC Berkeley grad students, faculty and staff who were parents to keep one another informed about preschools, nanny shares, babysitters and other issues of importance to academic families. It has since grown to include parents who live in Berkeley and nearby East Bay Area communities and is now a non-profit organization. Subscribing is free for parents: https://www.berkeleyparentsnetwork.org/subscribe.

This is not a comprehensive list, but here are some additional child care facilities that are local and well-reviewed. In Berkeley: Cornerstone, Woolly Mammoth, Sprouts, Little Beans, The New School, and The Berkeley School to name a few.

Then there's Claremont Day Nursery with facilities in three locations (the Kensington location is off Colusa Circle, right at the borders of Berkeley/Albany/El Cerrito/Kensington), Albany Preschool in Albany, and Pride and Joy Preschool in El Cerrito.

Key to landing a rental you see and like is applying for it on the spot. To aid in this process, it’s a good idea to have all your fiscal information handy, including copies of your paystubs or your hiring offer with the salary stated. A sample Tenant Resume may have been attached to one of your emails from me; feel free to edit it and add a cover note—and please request this document from me if you have not received one or it’s lost among your past emails. Although most landlords prefer to have their own application forms completed, the Tenant Resume – one per adult in the household -- is useful as a ‘cheat sheet’ for completing the forms, and occasionally it will be accepted in lieu of the application.

Have your checkbook handy (U.S. checking account only) to submit any requested payment for credit check/application fees (usually $25 - $40 per adult, the legal maximum is now over $60 and is rarely charged). It is possible that you might be selected on the spot because you will be a new CAL professor! I have seen this in quite a few instances. If you like a rental and it’s offered to you, it is very good to have your checkbook with you so you can offer the first month’s rent and deposit immediately. Please note: International faculty may need to arrange a wire transfer from their current bank accounts, or arrange payments via PayPal, Zelle, or similar. (Note: Never send money without having viewed the rental in person or had someone reliable vet it for you. Additionally, do not send money until you have a signed rental agreement.)

If you are from outside the U.S. and need in-depth information on how best to present your financial information to landlords and property managers, please inquire with me. If you do not have U.S. credit, please prepare a simple statement (three sentences maximum) to explain why (e.g., "I have lived in Switzerland all my life and never had a need or opportunity to obtain U.S. credit.")

Here are some tips regarding Open House viewings: Go early or right at the start of any Open Houses if you possibly can. If you are at an Open House and you see lots of application fees being collected, use caution! If you want to apply, ask the landlord or property manager if you would be considered a top candidate for the rental, and ask what their refund policy is if you are not selected as the tenant. It strikes me as very shady if 50 or 100 application fees are collected – are they really going to run all those credit reports?

Many local landlords own one or two homes they rent as investment properties, or they own a small building of 4 or 6 units. They may be unaware of all the documentation they are supposed to have, and they may be using an old form of one or two pages. Frankly, there isn't much one can do in the current rental market if you are offered substandard documentation -- the truth is, there are likely many others who will happily sign such paperwork if you refuse. Know that you cannot sign away your rights; if you really like the rental, protect your interests by following the information on retaining your deposit, below, and submitting the move-in condition information as soon as possible. If the owner doesn't want to take it, submit it with your next month's rent and keep a record of it. You should definitely check your rental for the presence of smoke detectors and (if there are any gas appliances) a carbon monoxide detector.

Proper documentation consists of multiple pages and addenda. It will include either a fixed lease or a month-to-month rental contract, usually on a form provided by a rental association, the California Association of Realtors, or a form provided by the (excellent) self-help legal publisher, Nolo Press. If the building was built before 1978 (likely), you must have a Lead Disclosure form, along with an EPA booklet given to you or at least a reference to the link for the booklet. The contract must have a reference to Megan's Law, which will refer you to a website where you can check to see if there are any registered sex offenders in the neighborhood. There may be a Mold disclosure form with information about how to reduce mold in the home. In Berkeley, if there are 2 or more units in the building, there should be a specific addendum prohibiting cigarette smoking. There should be notifications regarding smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors (you should look for these when examining rentals -- both are required by state law). A sophisticated agreement will also have a bed bug addendum and possibly some house rules about how long overnight visitors may stay.

• Pets: Please review the information in the Pet Flyer which you can request from me if you haven’t already received one. If you have a dog, or more than one dog, please request the sample “Pet Resume” from me which can aid in your success in securing a rental more quickly than without this form.
• Children: With the exception of designated Senior Citizen housing, it is illegal to discriminate against children in rentals in California.
• Utilities: Some utility companies may ask for a deposit if you have no previous record of payment with them. This deposit should be refunded to you after a certain amount of time if you make regular and on-time payments.
• Wi-Fi: The two principal companies for Wi-Fi service are Comcast and AT&T. They offer ‘bundled’ services to get a better rate on TV, telephone and internet. Be sure to specific that you want Wi-Fi and ask if you need a specific modem or arrange for them to provide one. If you get the telephone (landline) service and you call a particular country often, ask for their special rate for that country so they can add it to your phone service.
• Typical terminology: A studio apartment is generally one large room for sleeping and living and dining, with a small kitchen area and a separate bathroom. A one-bedroom apartment will have a separate bedroom, kitchen and bathroom in addition to a living/dining area. A two bedroom apartment will have two separate bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and a living area with possibly a separate dining room. Three bedroom and larger rentals will almost always have a separate dining room, or perhaps a dining area in the kitchen, or both. Cooktop, oven and refrigerator are included in most rentals, as are kitchen cabinets. In the U.S., an ‘apartment’ is the same as a ‘flat’. A ‘condo’ rental is usually similar to an apartment, but it is individually owned in a building where many units will be owner-occupied, whereas an apartment building is an investment for an owner or a company who owns the building and all of the apartments in it.
• Air conditioning: Air conditioning (cooling) is rare in Berkeley because the climate is so temperate. East of the Berkeley Hills (Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, for example), where temperatures can climb to 100 degrees (F) or more during the summer, rentals usually have air conditioners. Heat must be provided by law.