Quick Take:
UC Santa Cruz erected construction fences last week along a stretch of the East Meadow for its long-awaited, and heavily litigated, Student Housing West project. Those first signs of construction prompted a wide range of responses from campus community members.
UC Santa Cruz erected construction fences last week along a stretch of the East Meadow for its long-awaited, and heavily litigated, Student Housing West project. And while some students are thrilled that the campus is finally moving ahead with additional housing, others worry it won’t be affordable, or have nearly enough units to meet demand.
The fences that went up last Wednesday at the corner of Hagar and Coolidge drives at the base of campus are the first tangible sign of movement on the project since it was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in 2019.
The plans call for up to 140 family housing units on the site, along with a community room and an early childhood center that can care for 140 children of faculty, staff and students.
The university announced that construction would begin in the coming weeks, though campus spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said he didn’t have a groundbreaking date. He said the new family student housing community and child care center are expected to open in late 2025.
Once the first phase is completed, the university will move onto its second phase: demolishing its current Family Student Housing units and existing child care center to construct buildings that will house up to 3,000 students. Officials estimate the first new buildings on Heller Drive on the west side of campus will be completed in fall 2028.
Those first signs of construction last week prompted a wide range of responses from campus community members.
Lilian Fisher, a rising sophomore, said it’s “wonderful” that the university is moving forward on building new housing. She and her friends tried to get on-campus housing for the upcoming school year but the slots filled before they could make a selection. After a search, she and five others will be living in a house near the Seabright neighborhood about 10 to 15 minutes from campus. In total, they’re paying slightly less than $6,000 per month and her share will be about $740.
She hopes the new housing will alleviate the pressures that many students experience searching for housing in the Santa Cruz area. Fisher said several friends have decided to live in their cars next year.
“As a young student, I stress so much about housing already. It’s a little concerning,” she said. “Especially since I’m going to school, and I’m paying a lot of money to go to the school that you would think would have more resources for [students].”
While initially the campus planned to build 140 units for students with families, Hernandez-Jason said Wednesday the university is now planning to start with 120 units with the option to add 20 at a later date “if there’s sufficient demand.”
He said UCSC has accommodated an average of 89 families with children a year over the past 18 years and never had more than 100 families in student housing in a given year.
“We are carefully managing construction costs, and we believe this is the best approach for our students and for the campus,” he wrote via email to Lookout on Friday.
However, several current Family Student Housing residents told Lookout they don’t think 120 family units will be enough.
Undergraduate Andrew Wilson is part of a group of Family Student Housing residents who recently formed a tenants association to advocate for themselves in UCSC’s housing plans. He said he’s disappointed that the university recently decided to potentially drop the number of units for Family Student Housing from 140 to 120.
“Obviously, there’s a housing crisis in Santa Cruz,” he said. “I feel like it’s somewhat disingenuous on the part of the university to sort of claim they’re [constructing] this new building as a big advance towards relieving that.”
Wilson lives in UCSC’s existing Family Student Housing with his wife, Melissa, a Ph.D. student in the literature department. They moved into the housing in fall of 2022, and he expects to graduate in fall 2025, with Melissa potentially finishing her program in 2026.
As he and Melissa don’t have children, he said they were told they won’t be given priority for housing – which Wilson said he understands and agrees with. However, he said considering the university’s repeated statements about building more housing, he’s frustrated he and his wife who are current residents might not get a spot in the new facility.
“They’ve already started putting in our rental agreements that we’re not guaranteed space and that we may have to look for [off-campus housing],” he said. “It’s a little shocking that they are doing this and not even providing enough housing for the first people who are going to be displaced.”
Wilson said he and his wife weren’t yet given a date for when they will know if they’ve been offered a unit. He said he doesn’t know what they’ll do if they don’t get an offer: “I’ve sort of avoided thinking about it because housing in Santa Cruz is such a nightmare.”
Others worry about escalating construction costs and whether the university will end up offering the finished units at rates that are unaffordable, particularly to those living in UCSC’s existing family housing units.
UCSC has previously said it expects the average monthly rate for a two-bedroom unit in Family Student Housing will be $2,400 in 2025, which it said was 53% below market value – projected to be $5,105.
Graduating transfer student Krystle Pale, 39, said she currently pays about $1,900 for a two-bedroom unit in Family Student Housing for herself and her four children. Even that amount is a struggle, she said, and for many months she’s in the red financially: “I’m asking CalWORKs [the state’s welfare program] to pay for my rent because I don’t have the money.”
Several Family Student Housing residents were alarmed by UCSC’s recent decision to raise rents by $65 a month, or $780 for the year starting July 1. More than 100 residents and over 250 other campus supporters signed a May 20 letter asking that the planned increase, and future increases, be waived until students were no longer rent-burdened.
On May 24, Dave Keller, head of Colleges, Housing and Educational Services, said rates at the Family Student Housing complex “are significantly lower than for other apartments” and are determined “after a careful review of all related housing expenses.” He did not offer to waive the increase.
Pale, Student Parent Organization president and a member of the residents group that is forming a tenants association, said she’s worried about housing affordability for student parents in the new project, many of whom are also struggling to afford the current rates. The parent organization advocates for parents’ rights and hosts community family events.
But, Pale said, considering the condition of some of the current units — she has had to deal with leaks and rust in the bathroom and kitchen, as well as persistent mold — the school needs a new space for families. “I have mixed feelings,” about the new construction, she said.
Bodie Shargel, president of the Student Housing Coalition, said the student-led housing advocacy group is excited about the project as it’s “much needed.”
“The currently existing conditions in Family Student Housing are substandard and we hope that this new project will come with a commitment from the administration to its residents,” Shargel wrote to Lookout. “This could include upgrades to pedestrian and transit infrastructure in the area so that families living there have better access to nearby schools and amenities.”
He added that he was disappointed that lawsuits delayed the project for so long.
After the regents first approved Student Housing West in 2019, two groups, East Meadow Action Committee and Habitat and Watershed Caretakers, filed lawsuits challenging the project’s environmental impact report. East Meadow Action Committee describes its members as UCSC faculty, students and alumni and concerned community members. Habitat and Watershed Caretakers similarly describes its members as alumni and environmentalists.
Don Stevens of Habitat and Watershed Caretakers said at least two lawsuits are still ongoing.
He said there’s a hearing scheduled for this Thursday, June 13, for a lawsuit about the university’s Long Range Development Plan in which opponents say the university failed to show it will offer affordable rates for planned housing, including Student Housing West, among other concerns. Stevens added that a second case against Student Housing West, also focused on affordability, is set to be heard in court on Aug. 15.
Stevens said he believes that both hearings could see the court make a final adjudication on the lawsuits.
“So while the university has apparently slated the beginning of construction, I think there is a strong possibility they may have to change their plans,” he said.
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