Quick take:
When UC Santa Cruz officials announced the closure of the university’s on-campus student trailer park on July 10, they cited a safety assessment for their reasoning. Lookout recently obtained the assessment report through a records request. It includes a proposal to reuse the area for a meditation garden and commuter lounge.
As part of their decision this year to close the 40-year-old on-campus trailer park that housed 41 students, UC Santa Cruz officials cited a safety and sustainability assessment report that found that the trailers had fire hazards, mold concerns, weak security systems and long-term habitability issues.
The June 25 report, which Lookout obtained Friday after filing a formal public records request, includes suggestions for alternate uses of the land and the trailer park’s bathroom facilities, community area and kitchen. Officials suggest developing a meditation garden where students’ trailers used to be and a commuter lounge where the park’s kitchen, community area and bathrooms are located. A commuter lounge provides students who live off-campus a space to prepare food, study and relax.
“The space could be repurposed for the development of a meditation garden area, in consultation with the campus Ombuds and CAPS,” the report reads, referring to dispute resolution and counseling services offices. “The current community lounge, kitchen, and laundry facility, which also features bathrooms, could be transformed into a Commuter Lounge space, conveniently located near the North Remote Parking lot.”
A meditation garden replacing much-needed affordable housing doesn’t sit well with Natalie Twilegar, a student who was displaced from Camper Park.
“The big things that stuck out to me (in the report) were their alternative plans: a garden and a commuter lounge, when students don’t need another garden,” she said. “Camper Park had two gardens already. We don’t need a garden. We need places to live and a university that cares about us.”
Laura Arroyo, associate vice chancellor, Colleges, Housing and Educational Services, told Lookout on July 10 that the assessment showed the trailers were no longer a safe and sustainable option for student housing. Because of that, the university announced the official closure of the park that day in a news release. That morning, the trailers were towed out of the park and recycled.
“It is recommended that the Camper Park facility be permanently closed at the end of the 2023-24 academic year due to the significant health and safety concerns and risks it presents for resident students,” the report reads. “Recreational travel trailers are neither designed nor intended for long term occupancy, and the trailers in the UCSC Camper Park are manifesting the problems associated with such long term occupancy.”
Prior to its closure, Camper Park was located off of Heller Drive west of the Baskin School of Engineering. It was founded in 1984 after students had demanded for years that the university provide a place for them to live in trailers as they had no other affordable options.
Twilegar said she and other students are still facing that problem today. She paid $750 a month to live in her trailer at Camper Park. Now she’ll be paying $1,100 to live in a room on the Westside in a six-person home.
“I had to consider picking up a third job and then realized that that’s completely not feasible for my life,” she said. “I’m having to pull from my savings to be able to pay my rent.”
Twilegar said she and other students are no longer pushing to keep the park open since the university towed the trailers out and announced earlier this month that Camper Park is officially closed. She likes the commuter lounge idea, as it provides students a place to relax and prepare food, but wants it to go further in helping students who live off campus have a place to not just relax, but also get assistance in finding affordable housing.
“I’m pushing for this space to be not only a commuter lounge, but a resource hub for students who are experiencing housing insecurity and students who just genuinely need resources that the school is not providing,” she said. “Now that it’s closed, we kind of have to see that as an opportunity for new growth and an opportunity to create housing that is self-sustaining, and will last us for much longer than Camper Park did.”