UC housing crisis forces students into multiple jobs to pay rent sleeping
0Matthew Chin couldn’t wait to dive into the life of a UC Santa Cruz college student after the loneliness of online learning. But instead, he is missing out on the camaraderie of roommates, dorm life and full slate of campus activities he had hoped to embrace. That’s because he lives alone in a tiny trailer away from campus — the only shelter he could afford in the scenic coastal town that was recently named the nation’s second-priciest rental market. Chin was shocked at the $1, 200 or more monthly rents for an apartment or dorm in Santa Cruz. So his father found him a used trailer to live in and rented a driveway — for $700 a month. Before he got a $1, 000 “beater car, ” Chin had to take two buses, an hourlong commute, to get to campus. Last year, when it was too late to get back to his trailer, he slept overnight in a forested part of campus. One day, he hid his gear — sleeping bag, mat, lantern and ukulele — in a bush because he was too embarrassed to lug it to classes. All of it got stolen. Stressed and distracted, Chin failed chemistry and changed his major.“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. “It does definitely contribute to a decline in academic performance. Socially, you feel estranged. If you don’t have housing, you wonder what your peers think of you. ”As most of the nine University of California undergraduate campuses start fall quarter this month, the state’s continuing college housing shortage has thrown thousands of students into crisis as need greatly outpaces supply. 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. Some, like Chin, are living in vehicles. Aimen Imtiaz, a UC Irvine transfer student, said she has had emotional meltdowns — especially after losing hundreds of dollars to a scammer posing as a real estate agent. And some students who manage to find housing struggle to pay for it, working multiple jobs and taking out thousands of dollars in loans as a last resort. UC leaders, including Board of Regents Chair Richard Leib and Student Assn. President Alex Niles, say that providing affordable student housing is one of the university system’s most urgent needs. UC campuses are located on some of the most expensive real estate in the nation, yet the university educates more low-income students than its public and private peers. One-third of all undergraduate students — nearly 78, 000 — have annual family incomes low enough, generally $45, 000 or less, to qualify for federal Pell Grants. And three UC campuses — Irvine, Davis and San Diego — each enroll more Pell recipients than all Ivy League campuses combined.“A lot of the students we’re accepting have housing and food insecurity, and we have an obligation to address that, ” Leib said. “UC is the great equalizer.
All data is taken from the source: http://latimes.com
Article Link: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-26/college-housing-shortage-pushes-students-into-crisis-as-most-uc-classes-start-up
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