For five decades, scores of University of Utah graduate students and their families have called the East Village housing community their campus home. However, that era will soon come to an end. The U recently announced that the historic housing complex will close in phases over the next three years.

Located east of Foothill Boulevard and Sunnyside Avenue on Arapeen Drive, the East Village apartments were constructed in 1971-72, consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom units as housing for students who were married, in a domestic partnership or single parents. Today, East Village houses 765 residents, but the aging structures are becoming more difficult and expensive to maintain, explained Associate Director for Operations and Logistics Mark Smith.

He said that while he will miss the residents of the community, “Now it’s out with the old and in with the new.”

Valerie Green, associate director of resident life for the University of Utah at Sunnyside Apartments, has for years been involved with the East Village community. She said observing the lives of the many students and their families over the past 20 years has been enriching.

“The families that have lived here are absolutely amazing. I mean, they are going to school, trying to raise a family, trying to plan for their future and living on next to nothing,” she said. “That’s why the community element has been so strong here, because everybody’s in the same boat. They’re all dead broke trying to maintain their marriages, raise their kids and get through school.”

While the buildings are today showing their age, the units have been a lifeline for so many people who have lived there over the years.

“They have provided homes for tens of thousands of people over 50-plus years,” Green said. “Residents call them their cinder block palaces, and a lot of people make them look really cute. They really decorate them, but it’s the community and the low cost that we were able to provide to help students get through school. Those were always our selling points.”

Much of the East Village and East Community Center will close in August 2027, with the remaining units closing in June 2028.