Opinion: UCLA should provide more comprehensive housing search resources for students

For many, college is a formative time when they learn to transition into adulthood. We leave our nests and begin to form new independence.

At UCLA, however, this process is especially difficult, thanks in no small part to high living costs.

Westwood was one of the country’s most expensive areas for renters in 2019, according to RentCafe, and the demand for housing exceeds its capacity, according to CalMatters.

Because the pickings are slim, landlords are able to take advantage of naive students, as exemplified in the Reddit-fueled “Premier Student Housing Scandal” in 2021. Premier Student Housing is a property management company with apartments housing students near campus. A Reddit user posted a complaint to the UCLA subreddit warning students to stay away because of its unsafe living conditions and unprofessional management. The situation escalated when responses to the post included threats of a lawsuit by users presumed to be affiliated with PSH, according to Reddit users.

It’s become clear that without proper help, students seeking housing in this market are placed in an especially vulnerable position.

That’s why UCLA should step in.

To protect its students from exploitative landlords, the university must provide more guidance for students searching for off-campus housing. This means providing greater clarity to students who lack the necessary resources to find a place to live. Listing landlords and buildings to avoid is a crucial starting point.

For many Bruins, UCLA’s on-campus housing provides a gentle introduction to living in Westwood. Payments through the university keep students safe from withheld security deposits or unjustified fines. Dorms also create community among students, who bond over adjusting to life away from home.

As students settle in, the Westwood area slowly becomes more familiar. We learn “the Hill” is where on-campus housing is, the “apartments” stretch across the neighborhood, and “the Village” is where the area’s businesses are.

Even with that lexicon, the transition from dorm living to off-campus and privately owned apartments can be jarring. UCLA attempts to provide some support to students with its community housing web page, neighborhood profiles page and apartment search databases. These are well-intended, but they generalize and glaze over a complex process. The Facebook groups these websites link to are filled with dubious profiles commenting supposedly helpful links on student posts, putting unaware Bruins in risky situations.

Additionally, a housing guide provided by the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Office of the Internal Vice President seemingly has all the information one could need when deciding on an apartment. However, it is concerning when a building such as the 433 Midvale luxury apartment complex is listed in the guide when a quick Yelp search shows many less-than-favorable student reviews. Some of them are hidden under Yelp’s “not currently recommended” feature, which could be easily overlooked by students.

When the information presented by UCLA or USAC doesn’t give the full picture, some students turn to friends for advice.

“A lot of (it) is information that’s just passed down,” said Sean Chen, a UCLA alumnus who graduated in 2021. “Friends gave me tips on what to look for and what not to look for. … Without that, I think it would have been quite difficult.”

Chen added that there may be room for UCLA to implement a more formalized and accessible mentorship process, by which students can be matched with upperclassmen who have already navigated the housing process and can provide advice to others.

Existing mentorship initiatives like UCLA’s GRIT Coaching Program and Transfer Mentorship Program show it is feasible for UCLA to foster student-to-student mentorship during the housing search.

Though on-campus housing provides ample cushion for new students, not everyone receives these benefits. Some transfer students go straight to off-campus living, while others arrive in Westwood without ever having toured the campus, let alone walked the neighborhood.

Princess Amugo, a fifth-year English student, said UCLA should provide a seminar for students while they still live in the dorms to show them how to search for housing.

“There needs to be a more cohesive process to bridge that gap,” Amugo said.

There should also be a more selective approach for which off-campus housing options the university presents as viable for students instead of leaving them to figure it out on their own. Advertisement space on campus is prized real estate, and the university should conduct a more rigorous background check for which housing advertisements it allows to take up space.

UCLA’s long-term goal is to provide two and four years of guaranteed on-campus housing for direct-entry and transfer students, respectively. Currently, direct-entry students are guaranteed three years of on-campus housing, and transfer students are guaranteed one year, leaving them in a vulnerable position for some of their academic career. Reaching the goal could eliminate the chance of students finding themselves in risky lease agreements and unfavorable housing situations.

And while it is good UCLA has these goals to make housing more accessible for students, it is leaving them out to dry in the interim.

UCLA alumnus and North Westwood Neighborhood Council President Furkan Yalcin sympathizes with the frustration students face when finding affordable housing.

He added that renting for the first time is confusing, let alone in one of the most expensive housing markets in America, and hopes the city council offers more resources to renters.

“The city council should have a fully funded right to counsel program where if … my landlord is suing me or I want to sue my landlord for (stealing) my deposit or they’re raising my rent and they’re not allowed to do that, … the city should pay for your counsel,” Yalcin said. “(The city) should provide you with lawyers and guide you through the process.”

While Yalcin is right that the city council should implement a program to help hold landlords in its jurisdiction accountable for abusing renters, this action will do little to help students who are actively looking for housing. UCLA is in a better position to implement programs that will help its students now – and it’s in the university’s best interest to do so.

Time spent navigating the confusion as first-time renters is time spent away from being a student.