Sachi Cooper was blunt when asked how the UCLA administration helps students experiencing homelessness.
“UCLA does nothing, pretty much,” she said.
Cooper, the 2020-2021 Undergraduate Students Association Council Facilities commissioner, said UCLA currently lacks institutional support for students dealing with housing emergencies. Although the Economic Crisis Response Team offers emergency grants or loans, and various campus food closets can give students food vouchers, Cooper explained that there is no established support system for students experiencing homelessness at UCLA.
As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates financial struggles, Cooper is worried students may find it increasingly difficult to live in Westwood.
“When we’re coming back to campus, we're going to see this really strong confluence of factors, an increase in students experiencing housing insecurity (and) an increase in commuter students,” Cooper said.
Finding a place to live near campus isn’t easy. In 2019, a survey by RentCafé ranked Westwood as the fourth most expensive neighborhood for renters in the United States. And according to a 2019 UCLA report, 5% of University of California students experience homelessness, a number which could potentially grow in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Resources offered by UCLA could be stretched thin. The UCLA Financial Wellness Program only suggests three resources for students in need of housing assistance. Aside from UCLA Housing, the only university-operated program recommended is ECRT Emergency Housing. This resource provides students experiencing homelessness with a room in university-owned housing for only 14 days – if the ECRT determines they actually need it.
But across campus, student-run organizations, coalitions and projects are actively working to address housing insecurities in the UCLA community.
Bruin Shelter is one such organization. Founded by alumni and then-graduate students Louis Tse and Luke Shaw in 2016, Bruin Shelter is a residence in Santa Monica operated by students for students experiencing homelessness. When the shelter operated normally, it housed up to 10 students at a time, with a focus on transitioning students into more stable and safer permanent housing.
Bruin Shelter was not spared from COVID-19-related closures. After the shelter shut down for the safety of residents and volunteers more than 1 1/2 years ago, Michelle Lu, the 2020-2021 Bruin Shelter president and alumnus, said the organization launched a remote case management program to address the financial and basic needs of students wherever they may be.
To receive help from Bruin Shelter remotely, students can fill out an interest form on the organization’s website. Afterward, students are connected to a case manager or social worker who will then guide them through the services Bruin Shelter offers. For example, if students are in need of housing, case managers can locate open shelters in their area.
“This was still a very productive year for us and we were still able to help a lot of students remotely and provide financial assistance when needed, and we've definitely been able to grow a lot on the advocacy front,” Lu said. “We hope to continue that for the upcoming year.”
Bruin Shelter also uses its resource database to help students locate affordable housing, apply for scholarships and food stamps, find healthcare providers and even receive funding for necessities like housing deposits. Medical and social welfare volunteers are also available to help students virtually when needed.
In addition to housing insecurity, Lu said Bruin Shelter worked to address new problems students faced during the pandemic, such as personal safety and mental health. Lu added that COVID-19 lockdowns increased the prevalence of students who were stuck in abusive or dangerous households.
A June 2020 study by UC Irvine found that domestic abuse service calls increased between 20% and 30% within the first months after stay-at-home orders were issued in nine major U.S. cities.
When UCLA limited on-campus housing offers and Westwood remained economically inaccessible for many low-income renters, many students were unable to seek safer residences. But regardless of the mental or physical barriers a student faces, Lu said Bruin Shelter works to tailor its methods to the student’s needs.
As many students start the process to secure housing for next quarter, Bruin Shelter is also preparing for a return to normal operations this fall after more than a year of remote work. But Lu said remote case management will continue to serve students in need of such assistance.
“Ideally we're able to open at full capacity week one and basically have all the funding available to meet all of our residents’ financial needs in transitioning out of the shelter system,” Lu said.
Founded in 2019, the student-led coalition Safe Parking UCLA advocates for designated parking spaces inside one of UCLA’s parking structures for students who live in their cars to use overnight. In Lu’s experience, getting to know shelter residents who have lived in their cars on a personal level led her to support Safe Parking UCLA, she said. Safe Parking UCLA would help ensure the security of students who are in such a situation, Lu said.
“If you're living in your car, you're very vulnerable to pretty much everything around you,” Lu said. “Having that safety net of a safe parking spot ... with the implementation of security is very important.”
In summer 2019, UCLA alumnus and then-undergraduate student Grayson Peters was serving as the chair of the Transportation and Safety Committee for the North Westwood Neighborhood Council when he learned that an ordinance in the Los Angeles Municipal Code prohibited people from living in their cars within 500 feet of a school.
The lack of awareness about the ordinance and inconsistencies with how it was enforced sparked Peters’ interest in homelessness activism. And because he believes UCLA has a responsibility to help students experiencing homelessness, Peters said UCLA could be a prime location to establish a safe parking program.
Working with the NWWNC and the USAC Facilities Commission, Peters created Safe Parking UCLA to address the needs of students living in their cars by ensuring they have safe and accessible places to park overnight. More broadly, Peters said Safe Parking UCLA aimed to raise awareness around students experiencing homelessness in Westwood.
Peters explained that proximity to campus, sanitation and safety were integral aspects of the parking proposal. First, staying in a campus parking structure would ensure students are close to their classes. Second, Peters said students would have an easier time maintaining their personal hygiene and cleanliness if they could access showers and restrooms at the John Wooden Center. Lastly, students would be near other necessary services and offices, such as Counseling and Psychological Services or the financial aid office. Access to these resources and staying close to campus law enforcement create a safer environment for students, Peters said.
For Peters, the parking proposal – which was ultimately rejected by UCLA administrators in January 2020 – was still only a partial solution for students experiencing homelessness because it didn’t offer permanent housing for students in need. The plan was only meant to keep those students safe as they transitioned to more permanent housing, he said.
When UCLA rejected the plan 1 1/2 years ago, Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck said he did not think 5% of UCLA students were experiencing homelessness, adding that he was concerned about how safe and sanitary the proposed parking solution would actually be.
But Lu said she believes no student should experience homelessness and it’s important that the university proactively addresses the problem.
“One of the most important things (UCLA can do) is make sure that (the student body) all have their basic needs met,” Lu said. “Without having these basic necessities, how are you really able to completely thrive as a student?”
While safe parking exists at other university and college campuses, such as Cypress College, Peters admitted he would be surprised to see it implemented at UCLA.
Peter said he thinks the UC resisted implementing the safe parking proposal because it makes homelessness visible and concentrated.
After the parking proposal failed to pass, administrators instead suggested a plan to create a hostel-like accommodation where students could pay to sleep nightly. Beck said the hostel could cost about $15 a night, but there have been no formal plans released for the project since it was proposed in January 2020.
In the meantime, the UCLA branch of the urban research think tank cityLAB is set to soon open its support system for students with extreme commutes: BruinHub.
BruinHub will open in the Wooden Center this fall. The hallmark of the project is the installation of nap pods – futuristic, bean-shaped capsules for students to reserve and sleep in. Gus Wendel, assistant director of cityLAB and urban planning doctoral student, said he plans to have at least five sleep pods open for students to use in the fall, free of charge.
BruinHub will help commuter students wait out traffic, sleep before class and store belongings, Wendel said. But he explained one common misconception is that BruinHub is UCLA’s long-term answer to housing insecurity or homelessness.
“(BruinHub) is definitely not going to solve any one of these problems on its own,” Wendel said. “It's just not big enough to do that.”
He said while BruinHub is intended for commuter students, it can still be a useful resource for students who walk the line between long commutes and housing insecurity.
“If you live really far from campus, or you don't have a place to stay a certain number of nights a week, the BruinHub would hopefully be a place where someone experiencing that – even if they're not necessarily commuting or identify as commuters – would be able to make use of that space,” he said.
Peters said UCLA currently has no way of gauging how many students actually experience homelessness, and the stigma associated with it often keeps people from making their situation known.
While individuals are often blamed for experiencing homelessness, Lu said uncontrollable circumstances – like job loss, abuse or financial crises – often put people in tough spots. Especially after a pandemic and economic recession, Lu said Bruin Shelter aims to help rewrite the narrative and highlight the prevalence of students experiencing homelessness.
“It’s very important that we dissolve stigmas,” Lu said. “The more we do, then I think there would be more support surrounding this community in general, and also support (for the) proposals and bills and reforms that are looking to support these communities.”