This post was updated Oct. 17 at 11:42 p.m.

The Basic Needs Redistribution Center, which provides free school supplies and other items to students, was slated for eviction from the basement of the Student Activities Center in August.

The organization’s leaders learned Aug. 27 that the center needed to move to make more room for the Scientific Diving Program’s scuba equipment, said Holly Hebden, the president of Good Clothes Good People – the group that runs the center – in a written statement. Although it initially appeared that the Undergraduate Students Association Council made a deal with the Graduate Student Association to save the center, the GSA pulled out of the deal late Thursday evening, leaving the future of the center in doubt.

In addition to school supplies, the center provides toiletries and clothes – including formalwear rentals for job interviews – as well as crutches and wheelchairs to any students needing them. After the eviction was announced, the center’s leaders were informed by UCLA Recreation and Campus Life administration on Sept. 1 that all items must be moved to a single poolside storage shed, said Joselle Barnoya, the external vice president of GCGP, in a Sept. 17 presentation at a USAC meeting.

“As of right now, administration has offered no firm commitment in finding a space to rehouse the center and has failed to identify any place we could relocate to,” added Barnoya, a fourth-year psychology student, during the meeting. 

After advocating to the administration, GCGP and USAC joined the GSA to write a memorandum of understanding to create a permanent home for the center in Kerckhoff Hall 138, currently home to the GSA’s study space, said Carolyn Wang, USAC’s Community Service commissioner. Since the relocation was awaiting approval, the center’s eviction has been delayed until the end of fall quarter, she added. 

However, Wang told the Daily Bruin late Thursday evening about the GSA pulling out of the deal after facing administration obstacles.

The center had an estimated 2,196 visits during the 2023-2024 school year, Barnoya said in her Sept. 17 presentation. She added that nearly 16% of visitors repeatedly rely on the center for basic needs supplies, and a total of $90,193.92 in student fees has gone toward the center since its founding.

With short notice to vacate, Hebden and Barnoya appealed to the UCLA administration and USAC for help to find a new home for the center, Barnoya said. 

“At first, they truly didn’t understand, because they were willing to move us to a poolside shed indefinitely,” said Hebden, a fourth-year biology student, in an interview. “Now we’re starting to work with administration, and I think they’re starting to get it – that we are an incredible resource that students depend on. So they’ve become almost our allies in a way, which is good, but it took some educating to get there.” 

Additionally, the UCLA administration recommended that GCGP combine its services with an existing basic needs center housed in the Strathmore Building, which would not have had an indoor space for the clothing that GCGP distributes, Wang said. 

“The center has become a community space. It’s become a space that students recognize, a safe space for all students,” said Wang, a fourth-year public affairs and statistics and data science student. “So it just wouldn’t have had the same effect.” 

[Related: UCLA’s new basic needs center in Strathmore Building set to open in January]

Barnoya said the move to the GSA’s space would allow the center to expand and better advertise its services to graduate students, who would be able to obtain school supplies and clothes for job interviews there. She added that the move would ultimately help the center.

However, the center’s future for graduate students is now in doubt after the GSA pulled out of the deal. GSA President Noor Nakhaei and Internal Vice President Elisa Nesi Rocha did not respond in time to requests for comment about why the deal was canceled.

In a written statement, ASUCLA spokesperson Christina Manuel also said the ASUCLA Board of Directors was not part of drafting the memorandum to relocate the center. 

“ASUCLA does not have a comment at this time,” Manuel said in the statement. “ASUCLA looks forward to further discussions with the involved parties.” 

GCGP is a volunteer-run organization founded in 2017. Since 2020, it has been under the Community Service Commission, Hebden said in a written statement. In 2020, USAC passed the Basic Needs Referendum with 75% of students in approval, instituting an initial $0.33 quarterly fee per undergraduate student to fund the center’s school supplies and hygiene products. 

After learning about the eviction, USAC – along with 36 supporting organizations – unanimously passed a resolution criticizing the eviction of the center, stating that the administration prioritized scientific diving over the pressing needs of students facing financial insecurity. The resolution also claimed the diving program did not provide evidence that it needed more space for equipment.

If the center is not rehoused, the student fees for GCGP will still be collected and used in other ways to support the basic needs of students, Wang said. The continued collection of student fees was another reason USAC moved quickly in response to the eviction, she added. 

Janine O’Barr, a graduate student in social work, said she used the center at least once a week as a nontraditional student with a 9-year-old son to get laundry detergent and feminine products as well as her son’s school supplies. In addition to fulfilling some basic needs, O’Barr added that the center was also a communal space, allowing her to discover Students with Dependents at the Bruin Resource Center and meet other nontraditional students. 

“That’s where I found my place, because I’m in my 40s,” she said. “I’m a nontraditional student and hadn’t felt like I fit in before then – and it all started from GCGP.” 

O’Barr added that the center’s possible eviction increases the difficult burden already faced by nontraditional students, many of whom support children in addition to doing their schoolwork. 

“There’s a lot of people going to UCLA that are struggling to get by – that have one, two, three children and are just trying to get through school,” she said. “This resource is incredible.”