Kiddie Parade for affordable rents at UCSC's FSH

On Monday, April 6th at 4pm at the Bay Tree Plaza at UCSC, the students and children at UCSC's Family Student Housing will be having a Kiddie Parade to demand fair and affordable rents at FSH. We invite you to come.

This action is responding to a proposed rent increase here of 7.5%. This will be an increase of 62% over the last nine years.

Thus far, the Administrators have held two meeting where a combined total of two hundred tenants (from a community of 200 rental units) showed up. The administrators assured everyone that having rent go up another 7.5%, after the same rent increase last year, was fair. They also feigned ignorance to a persistent mold problem, that two months earlier they'd put flyers on everyone's door saying tenants must deal with on their own, despite the fact that much of the mold issue exists within the walls. At the meeting, when over ten students stood up and spoke about persistent ailments their kids have suffered with since moving to FSH, they promised to deal with this issue immediately. Tenants have been complaining and children have been suffering with this problem for years, with no remediation beyond being told they are imagining things.

The Administrators went on to explain that due to the Long Range Development Plan of UCSC, we need to pay much of our rent into future housing costs, some of which would go into doubling the units at family student housing. While there will be future need for that housing, it seems cruel to fundraise off the backs of single parents, undergraduates with kids often living well below the poverty line, and students who are the most vulnerable to dropping out of school under economic duress. This proposed current budget leaves many families, living off grad student wages, $250 to live on a month.

While the UCSC Administrators have been willing to meet with us, thus far they are holding onto their current rent structure as "Fair." However, this sentiment seemed aimed at tenants, and did not include any of the myriad administrative excesses the UC system has been known for. It also took in no consideration of our current economic crisis, and the reality that many student's partners have been laid off or been unable to find work in this economy.

In 1974, soon after Family Student Housing was created, back when it was brand new, rents were (taking into account current day inflation) $573. They have since more than doubled, while the housing has deteriorated dramatically. Issues of mold, termites, vermin, asbestos, lead, and major maintenance issues that go for months before being addressed are rampant at Family Student Housing.

If you would like to interview some family student housing residents, get sent some of our handouts on budgets and statistics, or receive more information, please contact Katie Howenstine.
831-480-7070, 206-446-9221, howenstine [at] riseup.net.