Updates

We Have a Response from Housing!

Meeting on Monday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Last week, UCLA Housing Director Sarah Dundish replied to our demands from November 2020 in the attached letter. The response partially accepted one of our demands: promising not to increase rent for the 2021–22 academic year. However, as of now, administrators will not provide rent relief to tenants under California Senate Bill 91. SB 91 allows the University to cancel rent dating back to the start of the pandemic, but administrators have made it clear that they have no plans to cancel rent anytime soon. The letter also threatened that evictions, late fees and academic holds may be initiated after June 2021.

Check out the letter from UCLA Housing here.

Housing did not make any commitments in response to our demand to cancel rent, nor did they respond to our demands to cancel the 2020–21 rent increase, guarantee contract renewals, and ensure that no more than 30 percent of student income goes to housing costs. Worse yet, the letter states that UCLA may resume the eviction process, including applying academic holds and sending accounts to collections, after June 2021 (with at least 30 days’ notice before doing so). In short, UCLA is giving one minor concession and threatening that eviction and collections proceedings could be just a few months away for tenants who owe rent.

UCLA Housing made a $12.8 million profit on $62.5 million in revenues in the 2019-20 academic year. This is a profit made off our backs in the midst of a global health crisis, during a time when many UCLA tenants and their family members lost jobs and had to choose between food and rent. Meanwhile, Housing admitted to spending roughly $400,000 per year on UCPD operations—the same UCPD that told UAS residents that the best solution to bicycle theft is not owning a bicycle. This is an admission that UCLA has more than enough money to meet our demands. They are simply choosing to put their profits over us: the people who keep the university running.

We will be meeting this coming Monday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. PDT, to discuss our next steps after this response from UCLA Housing. We hope to see you at the following link then: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/95844162475.