Family Student Housing tenants say UC Santa Cruz slow to address rent hike, mold problems

It’s been more than a month since Family Student Housing residents at UC Santa Cruz requested that the university waive a rent increase and address substandard housing conditions in the 53-year-old complex. They expressed frustration last week over the university’s lack of response, while a UCSC official promised more transparency soon about how the complex would be managed until new housing opens about a year from now.

LuLing Osofsky, who has organized fellow tenants, met with administrators on Aug. 1 to demand they rescind a $65 per month rent increase that went into effect in July. 

“We still have yet to receive a formal reply that addresses any of the demands that we put forth,” she said Thursday, adding that tenants are still living with mold- and termite-infested units. 

The tenants’ demands come about a year before a new Family Student Housing complex and child care center is scheduled to open. Students needing family housing on campus will move to the new location, and the current complex will be demolished to make way for new undergraduate apartments. Both projects are part of UCSC’s Student Housing West project. 

Osofsky and other tenants say the university has neglected the existing facility while the new family housing center has been in development. Tenants told Lookout about contracting asthma, allergies and rashes they believe are from mold exposure in their apartments. 

They’ve asked the university to waive the rent increase and resolve the poor living conditions. Osofsky said she hasn’t received a formal response. 

Laura Arroyo, associate vice chancellor for colleges, housing and educational services, didn’t respond to Lookout’s questions about whether the university was considering waiving the rent increase or would respond formally to the tenants’ group, but said that complaints about health and safety issues are being addressed individually. 

“For immediate student concerns, we are addressing those promptly and individually, this has been our focus since my arrival in July,” she wrote via email. 

She said university officials will respond to the group’s demand for greater transparency and communication about the existing facility and the new one at the start of the new academic year later this month. 

In part because there will be fewer total units at the new Family Student Housing complex, Arroyo said UCSC has slowed placement of families in the existing complex, but not shut down the waitlist completely: “We are continuing to assign families to Family Student Housing.” 

“This has been coupled with space readiness for emergency and crisis response needs, similar to what we have done across all of our on-campus housing in preparation for the fall,” she wrote. 

Osofsky said residents are still facing substandard housing conditions. She recounted a resident who was in a termite-infested apartment and requested to move to a different unit, only to be placed into one that had a previous mold problem. So the resident moved back to their original unit.

“We already knew it had a horrific mold problem in it,” she said. “They know that it had a serious mold problem. When the [prior] family moved out, they were horrified, because their kids had respiratory problems as well. [The university] was considering these units usable.” 

Osofsky said while residents are frustrated, they’re also feeling more organized. 

“It does feel like there’s more energy around asserting rights to habitability,” she said. “Which I think is really positive to see like tenants feeling more comfortable advocating for themselves.”

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