Housing availability at Spelman College is expected to improve in 2028 thanks in part to Fulton County’s anticipated investment in a new state-of-the-art campus dorm.
On Aug. 26, the board of directors for Develop Fulton agreed to issue $140 million in federally tax-exempt bonds to Spelman for the construction of a new 670-bed residence hall, which is set to replace Howard-Harreld Hall and Dorothy Shepard Manley Hall, both of which were built in the 1960s, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Spelman told Capital B Atlanta via email Thursday that its present housing capacity is limited to 54% of its estimated 2,600 student population for fall 2025. The school said its new 230,000-square-foot dorm will make on-campus housing available to 64% of students.
“This transformative campus expansion is part of our broader commitment to elevate the student experience, modernize infrastructure, and strengthen Spelman’s national leadership in higher education,” Dawn Alston, CFO and senior vice president of business and financial affairs at Spelman, said in a statement released on the school’s website.
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“These upgrades to our campus living environment will allow us to better serve our students while honoring the institution’s legacy of academic excellence and innovation.”
The new dorm announcement came amid rapidly rising student enrollment at Spelman and other AUC schools following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of affirmative action in 2023.
Some Black students who might have attended elite predominantly white institutions in past years have set their sights on prominent HBCUs, including the ones in Atlanta, long considered to be the national epicenter of HBCUs.
Kwanza Hall, who serves as chairman of the board for Develop Fulton, the county’s economic development agency, said the governing body’s decision reflects its commitment to thoughtful investments that shape the county’s future.
Hall said once finalized, the anticipated investment will help one of the nation’s top HBCUs give more young people a place to grow and evolve into “phenomenal adults.”
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“Atlanta and Fulton County, Georgia, are very dynamic and attractive places to young people from around the country,” Hall told Capital B Atlanta. “It used to be the Southeast, and folks who kind of wanted to experience the Black Mecca. But now you’ve got people coming from all over the world, and not even of African descent, who want to experience the college campuses that we have here.”
The news may be a breath of fresh air for students at Spelman and other AUC schools, who have spent years complaining about the cost and lack of housing at their combined campus.
Construction of Spelman’s new dorm is scheduled to begin in May 2026.
