Rice University in Houston says it is opening two residence halls as temporary housing for front-line medical workers at nearby Texas Medical Center institutions.

The Houston Chronicle reports that two undergraduate halls, Wiess and Hanszen, will be available after April 12 to medical workers who want alternative housing. About 50 students and resident associates now living in those halls will be moved, Rice President David Leebron says.

“Enabling hospital staff to live nearby will give them a greater opportunity for rest and to work needed hours,” Leebron says.

The two halls can house around 500 people, but capacity will be limited to around 100 to allow for proper social distancing. Texas Medical Center officials will decide which health care workers move to the campus.

Weighing heavily on Houston’s health care community is the possibility of a surge of patients — as has happened in other cities — straining resources and exhausting or sickening health care workers.

Some doctors report they already live mostly apart from their families in their own homes, eating and sleeping separately out of fear of unknowingly spreading the virus. Others have even sent children away to live with relatives.

Opening Rice's mostly empty halls felt like something tangible the university could do.

“We are members of this community,” Leebron says, "and this is a fight that we, our city, our state, our nation need to undertake together.”

Rice University opens residence halls to medical workers

Mike Kennedy | Senior Editor

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