UC housing crisis forces students into multiple jobs to pay rent, sleeping bags and stress

Abstract

"For a lot of students and myself, not having secure housing creates a lot of anxiety and stress," said Chin, a third-year student majoring in environmental studies. About 9,400 students systemwide were denied university housing this fall because of shortages - and some campuses are back to squeezing three students in a dorm room as a stopgap. "UC is the great equalizer. We have to get students housing and food so they can do well." Leib added that UC should offer unhoused students hotel rooms if necessary - as UC Santa Barbara and a few other campuses did last year when they were hit with unexpected room shortages. The crisis prompted Clari Gao, a third-year student majoring in English and comparative literature, to help organize campus efforts to advocate for more student housing. "If we become aware of a student who may be sleeping in their car, we have social workers dedicated to helping students seeking to secure housing," a campus statement said. "It's an absurd metric which weeds out a lot of marginalized, underprivileged students," Adriana Lugo, a fourth-year student majoring in sociology and psychology, said about the guarantor income requirements. UC Davis, which has added 5,000 beds since 2017, is expanding another site to provide 1,500 beds for graduate students and students with families in fall 2023.