A report from UCLA in 2020 revealed that one in five California community college students (20%), one in ten California State University students (10%), and one in 20 University of California students (5%) experience homelessness while pursuing their degrees.
Thousands of students across the state struggle to find housing at over one hundred campuses.
A report published last year by the Cal State system found that almost 33,000 students lacked the housing assistance they needed. Cal Poly Humboldt, for instance, had 2,069 beds available on campus in 2022, and more than 5,800 students enrolled last fall.
In February 2023, Oden Taylor, a fellow with the CalMatters College Journalism Network, wrote an article with former fellow Hannah Getahun and network editor Felicia Mello, where they discussed how officials were hoping to double enrollment at Cal Poly Humboldt by 2027.
However, plans to reserve all on-campus housing for first-years were scaled back after current students staged protests.
Despite the scaling back of the plans, some returning students still lived in hotels or barges. Taylor stated that the uproar illustrated the severity of the state’s student housing crisis.
More recently, higher education reporter Debbie Truong spoke with Cal Poly Humboldt students struggling to get through college while unhoused.
She discovered a group of students who formed a community while staying in a parking lot on their campus.
They shared resources, like propane tanks to heat their living quarters and ovens to cook meals. They helped one another seal leaky roofs and formed an official campus club aiming to secure a mailing address.
However, their sense of security was shattered in late October by a letter from campus administrators.
Overnight camping is prohibited, so move or risk getting your vehicle towed and facing disciplinary action.
The episode has drawn backlash and renewed debate over California’s high housing costs. Some students moved to different parking lots and tried to keep a lower profile but found citations on their windshields in November.
School officials sent a campus-wide email saying that parking lot camping “creates unsanitary and unsafe conditions for both those encamped and our campus community at large.”
The university’s sociology department responded with a letter calling out school officials for enforcing a policy they said “criminalizes” students and serves to intimidate them into leaving campus.
The student-led University Senate also passed a resolution that urged school officials to cease enforcement for the rest of the semester and explore safe parking options.
The tension at Cal Poly Humboldt highlights how low-income California State University students who are determined to earn a college degree struggle to meet their basic needs amid the state’s student affordable housing crisis.
The lack of affordable housing in the area exacerbates the housing situation at Humboldt, as is the case at many other campuses across the state. Debbie notes that the city of Arcata, where Cal Poly Humboldt is located, deals with housing and shelter crises.
Plans are underway to ease the strain on students. By fall 2025, Cal Poly Humboldt plans to build more on-campus dorms and apartments, increasing the number of available beds by 1,250.
However, cost could remain an issue, and the students of G11 will have to find a solution sooner. “I can’t afford to pay $1,500 or $900 a month and work and then do a STEM degree,” said Carrie White, a student who lived in the lot. “I can’t afford it.”
Cal Poly Humboldt students live in vehicles to afford college. They were ordered off campus. An insightful piece by @latimes reporter @debbietruong and photographer @WallySkalij https://t.co/rmrVfnGbTP
— Genaro Molina (@GenaroMolina47) November 26, 2023
Check out my latest story on Cal Poly Humboldt’s housing crisis. Students report unsafe conditions in on campus and off campus university housing. The housing shortage is so severe the university is considering housing students on a floating barge. @collegebeatCA https://t.co/iZ4BzoJLGj
— Oden Taylor (@odentaylor1) February 16, 2023
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