Story and infographic by Branden Padilla
Settled in the heart of Monterey County, California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) is described as beautiful, safe, close knit, and insanely expensive. Students from all over the state, country and overseas come to study at CSUMB for the scenery, but are drained of motivation to enjoy it because they’re overworked, exhausted, and stressed about being able to remain in the area to complete their education.
CSUMB offers what some students generously call “the most affordable in the area” yet housing costs have increased from semi-affordable to expensive without improvements or new amenities to justify the rate increase. The infographic below examines a timeline of rent fluctuation in some housing, and skyrocketing rent in the East Campus community between 2018 and 2023.
In a survey we sent out to CSUMB students about housing plans for summer and upcoming 2022-2023 academic school year, 40% of respondents state they will not be staying in their current arrangements over qualms of poor amenities and a rising rent that isn’t justified.
Respondents note issues from the past have yet to be improved, including poor organization of mailrooms and late announcements. “The price hikes are not a representation of better service,” said a student responded. “Housing and the Office of Residential Life continues to let down the student body with their disorganized package system, backwards priority system, and late announcements for information” the respondent said.
Although marketed as an elevated apartment living experience, residents of Promontory Apartments on East Campus disagree. “The housing is very poor” a respondent said. Survey results also indicate consistent issues related to a lack of available parking and faulty appliances not justifying the Promontory’s high expenses.
“It has several problems all the time” a respondent said. “Something breaks in my apartment every other day because the quality of everything is so bad. We have had to have our washing machine replaced once, our fan over the stove is broken, and our heater to heat our shared space stopped working.”
Students living in residential halls are required to purchase meal plans and residential halls do not include kitchen amenities or aren’t equipped with cooking spaces, leaving students at the nutritional mercy of the meal plan’s food unless they can find alternative housing. “I was not able to secure housing (off-campus), I am at a downgrade from where I am living now” another respondent said. “I was aiming for somewhere with a kitchen because I have lost about 35 pounds this year from campus food.”
All survey participants are in dismay and out of better options but over 66% of respondents state their decision to move out of east campus for the summer is because of the cost alone.
When it comes to poor housing amenities for students and staff, CSUMB is not alone. Formerly known as Humboldt State University, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt is notorious for its homeless student community. A 2019 expose by Now Next News in 2019 reveals 1 in 5 students were homeless, with an off-campus housing liaison coordinator blaming the circumstances in part on Airbnb's taking up potential living spaces, as well as strict local homeowners not trusting students to rent their properties.
California’s cost of living and homelessness crisis is no secret, with over 50,000 students in the CSU system being homeless. While reform remains stagnant in a plethora of other issues plaguing the communities and no practical solution in sight, students are left to endure the conditions until graduation.
In a short response about the cost of housing in Monterey Country, both on and off campus, a survey participant sums up the issue at hand with a quote from Jimmy McMillan simply stating, “Rent is too damn high.”
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