Inspiration
At UC Santa Cruz, students struggle to find reliable housing. Most rely on Snapchat stories or scattered group chats, which are unorganized and often outdated. We wanted to create a single, trustworthy platform where students can easily find listings, connect with potential roommates, and explore local housing — all in one place.
What it does?
CruzCribs is a web app that helps UCSC students discover off-campus housing, view listings with images and details, and connect with other students seeking roommates. Users can create profiles, upload listings, and contact others safely within the platform.
How we built it
We built CruzCribs using React, Vite, and Tailwind CSS for a fast and responsive frontend. Our backend is powered by Supabase, which handles authentication, storage, and database management. We used React Router for navigation and Supabase Storage for uploading and displaying listing images dynamically.
Challenges we ran into
One major challenge was handling image uploads and managing Supabase Storage permissions securely. We also faced difficulties syncing authentication sessions across pages and displaying dynamic routes like /listing/:id correctly in production. Debugging environment variables for deployment on Vercel was another learning curve.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud of building a fully functional platform that feels smooth, fast, and modern. Features like user authentication, real-time listings, roommate matching, and a photo gallery that mimics Zillow were all exciting milestones. Seeing CruzCribs come to life as a useful tool for UCSC students was the best part.
What we learned
We learned how to integrate Supabase with React effectively, manage user sessions, and deploy full-stack apps using Vercel. We also gained experience debugging route handling and optimizing image uploads — skills that will help in any future web development project.
What's next for CruzCribs
Next, we plan to add AI-powered roommate matching based on compatibility, verified landlord listings, and direct in-app messaging. We also aim to extend CruzCribs beyond UCSC to other universities, helping more students find safe and reliable housing. We also plan on deploying it using Vercel
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