U-Haul, the American moving and storage company, is offering college students 30 days of free storage during wide-spread school closures.
Universities across the U.S. have been shutting down on-campus housing as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. All state and city universities in New York declared that they’d be moving to remote learning beginning March 19, and SUNY Fredonia and Stony Brook University have already told students to move off-campus.
“We continue to try to meet customer needs today, and college students are certainly in need of solutions right now as universities transition to online instruction and close campuses in the middle of the spring term due to COVID-19 virus concerns,” U-Haul Media and Public Relations Manager, Jeff Lockridge, said in an email to The Statesman.
U-Haul is an official American Red Cross Disaster Responder and usually offers the free storage program to communities affected by natural disasters. Lockridge notes that the COVID-19 outbreak is “a unique circumstance,” as students across the U.S. are facing sudden displacement.
Stony Brook students who live within driving distance of the university have until 5 p.m. on March 19 to move out. All other residents must leave by 5 p.m. on March 20.
Students looking to take advantage of this program should go to U-Haul’s storage website to locate a nearby facility. Students will need to provide their college ID to use the service. If storage is not available at an individual facility, U-Haul will find the nearest facility with available space for student belongings, free of charge.
Although students will need to pay storage fees beyond the 30-day trial, U-Haul is offering students a 20% discount with the promo code “earlymove.” All students displaced in the wake of COVID-19 are allowed to utilize the free 30-day storage service.