Hundreds of UCI Students struggled to find affordable housing this year due to financial barriers and lack of available on-campus housing. As of August 15, Vista Del Campo Norte, Vista Del Campo, Camino Del Sol, Plaza Verde, Puerto Del Sol, Arroyo Vista, Mesa Court, and Middle Earth have been filled and will only accept students based on cancellations according to an email from Vice Chancellor Willie Banks Jr. There are 1016 students on the waitlist, as of Oct. 5, according to the latest UCI Student Housing update.
In response to the lack of affordable and accessible housing on and off campus, students have turned to each other for aid — and to criticize the housing policies of UCI, American Campus Communities and the Irvine Company.
Many have taken to Reddit to talk about experiences, with one post from u/CatatonicShock titled “UCI and ACC’s Policies on Not Prioritizing Lease Renewal is Bullsh*t.” detailing their frustration with UCI’s lack of communication during the ACC housing application process.
“I find it disgusting that UCI disclosed that there were no more spaces available less than two weeks before so many people’s leases expired, about a month before the fall quarter starts,” the post reads. “This simply isn’t fair or taking responsibility for the students, especially those that don’t have the socioeconomic background, transportation or resources to secure off-campus housing in Irvine in such short notice.”
After reading about students’ concerns in an LA Times article, KTLA interviewed second year English and comparative literature major Clarissa Gao, a student who held meetings with other unhoused peers to petition UC administration to address basic housing needs.
In an interview with the New University, Gao further went into detail about the mental strain of finding housing near campus.
“I’ve been dealing with not being able to fall asleep, like depression, anxiety, paranoia … my hair has been falling out because it’s stressful, not having a place to live, ” Gao said.
Gao was able to find a place to live after cycling through 30 people and found a common problem when looking for housing near campus: the Irvine Company’s guarantor requirement.
The requirement states that a guarantor, a party that is responsible for the lease conditions, must have a monthly income of at least four times their monthly rent. For instance, if a group of students were to rent an apartment that costs $4,000 per month, the guarantor must make at least $16,000 per month.
Gao, who also organizes with the Radical Student Collective (RSC), a group of students working for social and systemic changes, collected many anonymous testimonials, 14 of which were posted on the RSC’s Instagram page. One of them even went as far as to say that the administration had recommended that they sleep in a Walmart parking lot.
“I was unhoused for the entire year. When I reached out to the school letting them know that I was sleeping in my car, they sent me an email suggesting I sleep in the Walmart parking lots … The UCI housing crisis is a massive injustice towards students who are coming to live a better life. I came from a low income life and UCI failed me,” the testimonial read.
A UCI English major from Virginia, Charlie, who requested his last name to not be revealed, had the same challenge as Gao regarding the guarantor income requirement and was also disappointed in the university’s response to the crisis.
“I would say UCI’s response is really poor. I feel like the resources they sent are honestly pretty inadequate … For example, most of the leases being offered were from September to August. We need housing from September to June,” Charlie said.
Thirty minutes after the ACC lease portal opened on Jan 18th, he began searching for housing during August after an email from Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Willie Banks stated that all beds in the ACC were full. After being rejected from the University Town Center Homes twice, Charlie found an apartment 2 miles from campus at the Park West complex.
In response to the distress of their peers, members of the RSC, including Gao, created a post titled “UC Housing Crisis,” followed by another infographic two weeks later titled “Why Are UC Irvine Students Unhoused?” — both of which garnered large attention on social media.
The post revealed that the housing crisis is caused by a wider UC-wide issue, with UC Irvine having a three percent homeless population and 40% food insecurity, according to the 2020 UC Accountability Report.
Another slide containing a Reddit poll from r/UCI found that from a pool of 1,166 students, 744 listed housing insecurity as the most severely impacted issue at UCI and in Orange County.
In an interview with KTLA, Executive Director of Student Housing at UCI Tim Trevan stated that the university provides students with resources to search for off-campus housing.
“We do occasionally find students who are in desperate need of housing and not high on our waiting list … we’ve got campus social workers who can connect students with basic needs housing in the community. We also have our off-campus housing network on our website,” Trevan said.
Gao contends, however, that these resources don’t do enough to alleviate the stress of finding housing and suggests that the issue is further within systemic issues that the university does not address.
“We just need a roof over our head. We don’t need to talk to a social worker about how we can reapply… We’re perfectly competent in looking for places to live… I’m tired of them pretending that they’ve been helping all this time and that they’re working on it because it’s clear that they haven’t,” Gao said.
RSC drafted a letter to be sent to administration for students to sign a request for the alleged “empty rooms” in the newly-built graduate housing community Verano 8 to be made free to undergraduate students for one year due to the high rent prices off campus. UCI Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff Edgar Dormitorio replied three days later, stating that the administration is “aware of these challenges students are facing” and “have been working individually with students who are facing housing difficulties.”
“He basically said, ‘oh, thank you for letting us know … we already know this and basically tell them to just email us and we’re figuring things out,’ which is basically a nonresponse,” Gao said.
UCI providing hotel vouchers for students was another possible remedy Gao had suggested in the KTLA interview but did not receive comment from administration regarding that issue.
The New University reached out to Trevan for further comment on additional housing resources. However, the only comment received was an automated response stating that he was out of office and would return on Oct. 6. A follow up email was sent on Oct. 18 with no response as of the latest.
UCI Communications Officer Sheri Ledbetter later answered in response to the same email inquiring about housing resources.
The email explained that UCI’s basic needs are dedicated to students who face homelessness and other housing insecurity related emergencies. Ledbetter further explained that the university addresses financial crises through the Emergency Response Grant, which gives students up to two thousand dollars if they have exhausted all financial aid resources available. Students may also request a Cost of Attendance adjustment to their financial aid package, which could make other financial aid options available to them.
“We don’t offer housing vouchers because those would be considered direct monetary support and would affect a student’s financial aid package. Our basic needs center is thoughtful not to impede students’ ability to receive aid.” Ledbetter said when asked about the possibility of providing hotel vouchers for students.
Gao further commented that the response was inadequate, as it implies students will still need to pay out of pocket for a voucher.
“Requesting a reimbursement after staying in a hotel means that the student will have to come up with the money themselves, which is impossible for many students,” Gao said.
Charlie also suggested that, if a student’s financial aid package must be lowered to afford hotel vouchers, this points to further systemic barriers within the university system.
“If that is true, then obviously, the system of financial aid is broken and flawed. [It] should be changed and should be changed to allow universities to provide for [emergency housing]… without taking away money that [we] need,” Charlie said.
Although UCI, as an institution, has “dealt with this situation poorly” according to Gao, systemic problems within institutions have resulted in students having no choice but to organize together to find solutions.
As students struggle to meet basic needs, many have found solace in aiding their peers, holding administration accountable through social media, and providing resting spaces, such as a couch to sleep on.
“I think that we can really only rely on each other because of the generosity of people and the fact that we all understand that we’re kind of in the same boat, and nobody can help us [but] each other,” Gao said.
Helena San Roque is a Campus News Staff Writer for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at msanroqu@uci.edu.