We are writing today to update our campus community on all the steps we have taken to provide additional housing for our returning students who have reported difficulty in finding housing for the fall quarter, which has been covered extensively in local news media. Like that of other UC campuses and universities around the state, UC Santa Barbara’s student housing has been impacted by the pandemic. While we have constructed a number of new residence halls that have added more than 1,500 beds over the last several years, have a long-term agreement with the management of Tropicana Student Living to provide student housing in line with campus facilities, and have achieved a significant milestone toward building the 4,500 bed Munger Hall, demand for space in our university housing and in the community has outpaced capacity. The rental market in Santa Barbara and Goleta is historically challenging, but this year in particular, the community of Isla Vista, where many of our students live, also experienced a shortage of rental space. While many factors contribute to the situation, a recent news report citing a student legal advocate with deep experience in IV housing suggested three circumstances that exacerbated the problem during the pandemic.
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- Remote work arrangements are enabling many people to move from larger cities to more desirable locations, including the Santa Barbara area, and this has decreased the available housing.
- Less dense housing situations in Isla Vista and neighboring communities have added to the constraints.
- Although the University announced its intention to return to in-person learning for the fall quarter in February 2021, many students, understandably, still were uncertain about how fall quarter would be conducted and waited longer than they might have otherwise to find and secure housing.
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Contrary to reports in news outlets and on social media, campus enrollment has not exceeded the three-quarter average of 25,000 on-campus students outlined in the 2010 Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), which was created to shape how the campus will develop to the year 2025. Enrollment this year is at the same level it was prior to the pandemic. The incremental enrollment growth prior to the pandemic was in response to mandates from the State Legislature and the Governor for increased UC enrollment, which at UC Santa Barbara was limited due to the negotiated LRDP. By maximizing our use of campus housing, the University was able to offer housing contracts to all first- and second-year students, new transfer students, and graduate students who applied before the July application deadline and who had not secured an off-campus option. In addition, contracts were offered to more than 1,000 students who applied for housing after the July deadline. As of September 20, 2021, the University has been able to offer housing to every undergraduate who applied for a housing contract. We are working to offer contracts to the 8 undergraduates who applied just this week. We have also offered housing contracts to all graduate students who applied for housing, although, like previous years, there are still a handful who are waiting for family housing units to become available. Altogether, the University is providing more on-campus housing than was available prior to the pandemic. To address the number of students who reported they were still searching for housing in late August, Chancellor Yang established a housing task force co-chaired by Kerry Bierman, Associate Vice Chancellor of Budget & Planning, and Mario Muñoz, Associate Director of Residential & Community Living, to explore all possible options, including working with local hotels to provide temporary emergency housing at the same subsidized cost a student would pay for an on-campus double. To accommodate students who informed the University in late August and September that they still hadn’t secured housing, the University has contracted with local hotels on or near MTD bus lines to make rooms available to students who could not find suitable housing elsewhere for fall quarter. These accommodations are temporary, and are intended to give students more time to find permanent housing or until spaces open up in existing housing. Through maximizing our housing capacity and contracting with hotels, we have been able to provide housing options for the fall quarter for the students who were still in need of affordable living situations. We want to thank our colleagues on the housing task force and in Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprises for their commitment to our students and for the assistance they continue to provide in helping them obtain housing. We also want to thank the members of our community who offered rental units to our students. If any member of our campus community is aware of a UC Santa Barbara student that is without housing, please contact University & Community Housing Services by phone at 805-893-4371 or by email at housinginfo@housing.ucsb.edu. In addition to support for Housing, students were notified last week about a whole range of programs to help with basic needs.
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Sincerely,
Chuck Haines Associate Chancellor, Finance and Resource Management
Garry Mac Pherson Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services
Margaret Klawunn Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Willie Brown Associate Vice Chancellor for Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Services
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