UC Irvine undergraduates started off the 2024-25 academic year by facing another housing crisis, and many were forced to commute to campus or find alternative housing options. Students reported having difficulty securing housing arrangements with American Campus Community (ACC).
“I’m living at home, an hour away from school,” third-year criminology student Cydney Yamamoto told New University. “I was waiting for my leases and I wasn’t getting them.”
In her first year, Yamamoto resided in the dorms before she moved to Newport Beach, Calif., for her second year. This year, she wanted to live closer to campus but the ongoing uncertainty of ACC apartments left students’ living situations “unclear the whole entire time.”
According to Yamamoto, ACC sent vague emails about her housing status late into the summer. The emails could not provide a straightforward answer and left her debating if housing elsewhere was the safer option.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Yamamoto said. “I was kind of hoping that UCI would help out, and it was annoying to hear other perspectives too.”
Yamamoto was able to work her schedule around commuting after she quit the tennis team last spring, but her course schedule this year still requires her to be on campus three days a week. Because of the hour-long commute she makes, she often arrives home late.
“It’s definitely rough because I have evening classes too, so I get home at midnight,” Yamamoto said.
Similarly, third-year biological sciences student Jamie Nguyen commutes from Garden Grove. She is on campus five days a week, and her commute can take as long as 45 minutes. Nguyen commutes due to financial concerns that could arise from living on campus.
“I would love to live near campus,” Nguyen told New University. “But UCI needs to make more housing, admit less students and offer more aid.”
In previous years, students reported their grievances towards the UCI housing systems on UCI Reddit forums. During the 2022-2023 academic year, Reddit user CatatonicShock shared a Google form to bring the ACC housing crisis to the attention of UCI.
“I just want to let my frustrations out and make my voice heard because I know I’m not alone in feeling insecure and scared for the future, and feeling even more resentment towards UCI Housing’s unfair policies,” CatatonicShock wrote.
The forum contained students in solidarity with user CatatonicShock, and many of them shared similar perspectives to Yamamoto and Nguyen’s.
“How about making more undergrad housing and accepting less people than you can chew?” Reddit user Lifedeather wrote.
Although Yamamoto and Nguyen commute to class, some students are unable to make the same trek to campus.
“I’m so afraid of what’s going to happen and the fact that a lot of classes aren’t going to be remote anymore is scaring me,” Reddit user Pristine_Command5709 wrote.
The Basic Needs Center pays for four rapid housing units within Campus Village for students experiencing housing crises. This year, the center added another emergency housing suite in Arroyo Vista. Each housing unit accommodates up to two students at a time, according to rapid rehousing social worker Christy Molino. With the addition of the Arroyo Vista suite, the Basic Needs Center can house 10 students in the five total apartment units.
“Every year the program continues to grow,” Molino told New University. “But last year all of our units were full the entire year.”
As of Oct. 4, the center rehoused nine students in the emergency housing units for the fall 2024 quarter. The Basic Needs Center helped 36 students in the 2022-2023 academic year and 40 students in the 2023-2024 academic year. Due to the large number of students rehoused last year, the program added the fifth unit to prepare for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Molino stated that “the housing crisis this year was not as bad as it was last year,” but “ACC could improve their communication with students.”
ACC usually sends out lease offers to rising third and fourth-year students towards the end of the summer, leaving them vulnerable to the possibility of homelessness.
“We know [the ACC housing crisis] is going to happen because it happens every year. That’s just the way ACC makes offers,” Molino said.
She explained that ACC apartments are in close contact with UCI Housing and both housing programs collaborate in directing students with ongoing housing issues.
“UCI continues to admit more and more students every year — but the housing remains the same,” Molino explains. “UCI Housing really cares a lot about the students and it’s not necessarily UCI Housing’s fault … it’s more the university as a whole not giving housing the money to create more space.”
As of Oct. 3, UCI is in the process of expanding its Mesa Court housing by adding another segment of dorms on campus. The Mesa Court Community Expansion project is set to be completed by August 2025 and will provide 400 beds with quadruple occupancy rooms. Mesa Court’s new dorm buildings will include amenities such as study areas, laundry machines and communal kitchen spaces.
Alyssa Villagonzalo is a Features Intern for the fall 2024 quarter. She can be reached at akvillag@uci.edu.
Edited by Sofia Feeney and Kaelyn Kwon.