Evans Manor

Absolutely DISGUSTING place — probably the cheapest single rooms at Berkeley, if not the SF Bay Area, but you get exactly what you pay for. I lived here from 2005 to 2008 as a Cal student. This is a 100+ year old vermin-​infested building with stained carpets, rickety stairs, rusted Victorian style bathtubs, leaky ceilings, and a load of other problems. I didn’t fully realize how awful the stench was in this place until I moved out and smelled my clothing.
Worst of all is the insect problem. The first summer I moved in, the place was infested with fruit flies because some idiot decided to throw food scraps out the bathroom windows instead of using the trash bin. I had as many as a dozen fruit flies flying around in my room at any point in time. I contacted management and they didn’t do a thing about them. In the following winter, the flies were replaced by ants. They crawled out of a hole in the bathroom wall and invaded my desk, bed, bookcase, cabinet, etc. These ants weren’t scavenging for food (by then the food scraps had rotted away, and I rarely ever ate in my room) but were seeking warmth. Too many times, I would feel something itchy on my arm while I was writing at my desk, and there it was: a black house ant crawling up my skin. Contacted management; same response — «deal with them yourself.» I bought a few ant traps from the local Walgreen’s but they were ineffective; the ants gradually disappeared as spring arrived. The common recycle rooms (1 per floor) are also infested with mice and vermin because everyone tosses empty pizza boxes, soda cans, frozen food containers, etc. into the bins without rinsing them out. The janitor then waits until the bins are filled not to the brims, but to the ceiling, before he empties them.
Many people have praised this place for its quietness, yet this only seems to hold true in the hallways and common areas, which are dead as a graveyard at night. Inside the rooms themselves, though, things couldn’t be more different. Many times, when I was in my bed trying to sleep at 3am, I would hear my suitemate having sex (you could hear the moaning and grunting), and someone in my neighboring suite yelling commands for his nightly WoW raids. He’d also smoke cigarettes and hookahs through the window (a blatant violation of the lease contract), and the awful smell would drift into my room. I complained to management, and they taped a stern warning to his door. A few weeks to months later, it was back to the same old problems. There are a lot of smokers and druggies in this building, and every other month, some idiot would set off the ancient fire alarms, forcing everyone to evacuate the building while Berkeley police & firefighters check whether there’s a real emergency.
Most managers are Cal college seniors who are barely old enough to drink alcohol. If you’re lucky, you might get a Ph.D. student serving the complex, but it’s rare. The turnover rate is extremely high, as most managers move out after they complete their degrees. So there’s a new manager every year or two.
I’d give this place 1 star for cheap rent ($ 400 – 600 per month, depending on room size.) For me, the only good that came out of living here was leaving enough money in the education fund my parents had set up for me, to partially pay for graduate school. Once you’re employed with a half-​decent job, you’d never want to move here again even if the rent were free.

Haha, just the words Evan’s Manor bring back some very interesting memories. I stayed here for a couple of months during the summer (as a sublease) right after living in the dorms for a school year and right before moving into a house. This is probably one of the cheapest living arrangements that Berkeley has to offer other than couch surfing of course. I lived here for $ 395/​month back in 2010.
The pluses that I can think of are: someone cleaned the restrooms, the management was helpful, it had on-​site laundry. Relatively close to campus.
The negatives are what brings this place’s ratings down. (NOTE:I was here for summer, things may be different during the regular school year). Ok so living for less than $ 400 a month in rent might seem like an awesome deal, but soon after moving in you realize that living here has its catch.
The design of the building is old and depressing. It’s somewhat scary living here. For days I wouldn’t see anyone in the hallways, all doors were closed most of the times and people were not social at all, it was extremely uninviting. Since the «suites» don’t have kitchens or common areas, its very hard to socialize even with the people in your own suite. Plus there are so many people coming in and out due to sub-​leases and new leases that it’s hard to keep up who you are living with. Let’s just say I was glad the summer was over that year.
Live here if…
–You want a good deal and don’t mind living in a somewhat depressing environment.
–You know who you are going to be living with, it gets boring otherwise, even if its just for small talk
–You don’t mind eating out a lot or you can live off of microwaveable food
–You’re a busy person who will only be home to shower/​sleep/​do laundry etc

So much skunk smell…

I lived here my soph-​senior year at Berkeley in the same room so that says something all by itself. While I was there, the apts were pretty affordable (mine was $ 480 for the 2^nd biggest room). The only real downside is that you don’t have a kitchen but that’s easy enough to work around w/​a rice cooker or a meal plan.
Bathrooms are shared so just pray that you are sharing w/​ppl that are clean and you should be fine.

So I lived here as a student, first as a tenant and then as manager.
Evans Manor offers really cheap rooms three blocks from UC. It is a 1907, 121-​unit building built originally as one bedroom apartments. In the 40s and 50s the military housed soldiers and sliced the apartments into boarding house suites. The building was later Coop-​run and became Barrington Hall. (Google it, important history of the B.) Now it is privately run.
I very much enjoyed my room on the second floor. it was really large with coved ceilings, four east-​facing windows, and a walk-​in closet. I initially shared just the bath with an often-​traveling international student. With pretty-​much endless hot water, I dearly miss the shower over the claw-​footed tub. (Although it is probably better for our drought situation!)
I didn’t so much always love sharing a bath, it is hard, and I REALLY missed having my own kitchen, but the price helped me finish my masters. I also met a lot pretty amazing humans while managing the building — even though I will never miss having to deal with 2AM knocks at my door.