Plans for a dormitory to be built for the University of California, Berkeley with funding from the Helen Diller Foundation faces controversy over the demolition of a rent-controlled apartment building and historic structures, "luxurious" amenities, and the funder's politics, Berkeleyside reports.

The UC Board of Regents is set to approve the largest gift ever made to UC Berkeley — a $300 million, fourteen-story, 772-bed off-campus dorm called the Helen Diller Anchor House — that the school announced in January without identifying the foundation. UC Berkeley's first donor-funded residence hall since 1942 also will be the first housing project dedicated to transfer students, who make up 20 percent of undergraduates and tend to come from economically disadvantaged families. When it opens in 2024, the LEED Gold-certified building will feature amenities such as a teaching kitchen and a rooftop garden that will serve the Berkeley Food Institute and the Rausser College of Natural Resources as well as residents, an 8,600-square-foot gym, event rooms, washer-dryers in every unit, and showers and storage space for commuter students. The foundation has stipulated that all net operating revenue generated by Anchor House be used to fund $2.5 million in scholarships annually for underrepresented and first-generation undergraduates.

While the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Berkeley Association, and San Francisco Housing Action Coalition have expressed their support, the project has drawn criticism from some community members. Tenants of an adjacent rent-controlled apartment building that UC Berkeley acquired in 2020 to expand Anchor House by seventy-five beds have held demonstrations against it, Berkeleyside reports. Although the university is offering relocation packages, "1921 Walnut St. is our home and we do not want to be displaced," the tenants wrote in an open letter. Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguín, the city council, Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), and the Associated Students of the University of California are all opposed to the loss of affordable housing, and many are urging UC Berkeley to return to its original plan, which would leave the apartment building intact. The original plan also requires, however, the demolition of two historic structures built in 1909 and 1930.

Another controversial aspect of the project is the politics of the foundation funding it, which was established with the fortune of Sanford Diller, founder of Prometheus Real Estate Group — the largest private owner of multifamily properties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before his death in 2018, Diller directed a number of grants to far-right causes, including $100,000 to Judicial Watch, $150,000 to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, and $175,000 to the David Horowitz Freedom Center, according to Inside Philanthropy; the foundation also has supported right-wing Israeli nonprofits. While Helen Diller Foundation president Jaclyn Safier has distanced herself from her father's politics, some critics believe the foundation's money is tainted, Berkeleyside reports.

Other critics have said that Anchor House is too luxurious, and more students could be housed on site if some of the amenities were stripped away. "The so-called student housing...is full of luxury suites and amenities consistent with a $750-$1,500 per night hotel stay," wrote Leila H. Moncharsh, a BAHA board member and co-founder of Berkeley Citizens for a Better Plan, an organization formed to push back against UC Berkeley's proposed expansion, in a letter to the mayor. "Tens of thousands of square feet that should be used for student beds has instead been squandered away in this lavish development."

(Image credit: University of California, Berkeley)