California universities grapple with housing instability
United States of America, California, Los Angeles Delainey resided on a friend’s couch and out of her car for the first five weeks of classes at the University of California, Santa Cruz, last year.
Delainey, who wished to only be named by her first name, claimed that the incident had a negative impact on both her health and her academic achievement.
She admitted to Al Jazeera, “I parked on campus and slept in my car for the first night of the [academic period].” I went to a friend’s house the following day to reheat up some meals, and they graciously let me to stay on their couch for almost a month.
“I ultimately dropped around half of my classes. The mental burden caused me to suffer.
Delainey eventually succeeded in locating a home in Santa Cruz, a seaside community in northern California with one of the state’s most competitive housing markets. Her current rent for a room in a two-bedroom apartment near university is close to $1,500 a month.
In California, where college students crowd into small homes, ration groceries to pay for skyrocketing rent, and are compelled to become homeless at frightening numbers, stories like Delainey’s are becoming more prevalent.
