What can be done to solve the student housing crisis in California?

The housing crisis is widespread in California and it has become especially dire for college students, as rents go ever higher and competition increases for whatever apartments are available. A 2022 UCLA survey found that student homelessness ranges from anywhere 5 to 20% across California’s colleges and universities, meaning that potentially hundreds of thousands of students are unhoused. So, what’s being done to solve this problem? We’ll start our conversation with Zennon Ulyate-Crow, third year student at UC Santa Cruz and founder and co-chair of the Student Homes Coalition - a student-led collective of higher education advocacy organizations and youth activists fighting for abundant, accessible, and affordable student housing. And then we'll turn to Su-Jin Jez, CEO of California Competes, a nonpartisan policy and research organization focused on identifying solutions to the state’s challenges at the intersection of higher education, equity, and the economy.