On March 16th, UCSC administrators and Vice Chancellors held a meeting to discuss rent hikes at UCSC's Family Student Housing (FSH). A hundred tenants, from a community of 200 rental units, showed up to demand affordable rents.

The officials told everyone that the rent needs to go up another 7.5%. They explained that due to the Long Range Development Plan, residents need to pay much of their rent into future housing costs, some of which would go into doubling the units at FSH. This proposed budget leaves many families, living off grad student wages, with $250 a month to live on. All of this is taking place with aging housing stock that the university defines as "substandard" and which has ongoing issues with mold, asbestos, and rodents.

On Monday, March 30th various Associate Vice Chancellors and Directors of UCSC Housing are holding a second meeting to discuss their proposed rent increase of 7.5% with the FSH tenants. This will be an increase of 62% over the last nine years.

In a year when many spouses have been laid off, when jobs in town and at the university are growing scarcer every day, the families who live at FSH are calling foul play. Ninety-eight percent of the households at FSH have signed a petition demanding affordable family student housing at UCSC. Read more