The Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality and Democracy hosted a panel on April 21 about the current housing crisis in Isla Vista and invited students to share their housing experiences and learn more about available housing resources.

IVCSD general manager Jonathan Abboud shared what housing resources they offer. Levi Kauffman / Daily Nexus

Currently, the Isla Vista housing market is plagued by “rising rent prices, limited unit availability and intense competition.” According to Blum Center Student Assistant Nicole Meng, of those surveyed, over 50% of students living in I.V. pay more than $1000 per month in rent and over 75% don’t believe they receive a quality of living that matches what they pay for.

Associated Students Off-Campus Senator and fourth-year political science major Paulo Brinderson, when interviewed after the event, described the crisis as “too many students and not enough houses.”

Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) President Spencer Brandt agreed with Brinderson, adding that student renters would become more empowered if given more options when renting.

“Unfortunately, the attitude when it comes to all the habitability issues that students face is ‘you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit,’” Brandt said. “Well, if students had more options, then they would be more empowered to be able to say ‘no, it’s not okay to me that my apartment has mold growing in it.’”

The Blum Center is a research center at UC Santa Barbara dedicated to addressing aspects of “poverty and inequality, and to [contributing] to collective action that advances intersectional economic and environmental justice regionally, in the United States, and abroad,” according to its website.

According to Blum Center Assistant Director Kashia Arnold, the center is particularly focused on community engagement.

“What sets us apart, I think, from other research centers, is that we focus, or we prioritize, community engagement — meaning that we want to do work and projects that are relevant to the communities that we are a part of and not just about speaking to other academics,” Arnold said. 

Presentations before the panel focused on how I.V. will be affected by climate change, such as increases in black mold and the continued erosion of bluffs. When Environmental Justice Alliance (EJA) member Kaitlyn Rokuskie asked who had experienced mold in their homes, around half the room of 20 people raised their hands.

Additional speakers from the EJA stressed the health risks posed by mold, such as causing extreme sickness, and the negative effect it can have on students’ mental health and, by extension, education.

The panel at the McCune Conference Room consisted of Eleanor Gartner, the District Representative and Communications Director for Santa Barbara Second District Supervisor Laura Capps, IVCSD General Manager Jonathan Abboud, Isla Vista Tenants Union Community Director Astrid Pike and Rokuskie. Discussion focused on the underlying causes of the housing crisis as well as projects currently being created to alleviate the crisis.

Gartner spoke about the upcoming Isla Vista Rental Inspection Pilot Program, which will be put up to a vote by the county board of supervisors on May 6 and would take effect over the summer. The program will send inspectors to properties to look for safety issues such as leaky pipes, mold or low fences and ensure that properties meet a certain standard for safety.

Following the settlement of a 2022 lawsuit filed by the county of Santa Barbara against UCSB for violating the Long Range Development Plan, which mandated the university to cap enrollment at 25,000 and build more housing for students and faculty, the university paid $3.7 million to the county for “direct community-facing projects,” such as the rental inspection program.

“We recognize that it’s a really high bar for young tenants to advocate for safer living conditions, whether it’s to their own landlord or to a county supervisor. So this inspection program will take some of that onus off of the young renters,” Gartner said.

The panel then answered questions from attendees, particularly providing advice for students navigating the I.V. housing market. Abboud advised students to take initiative and self-advocate.

“Just being proactive, learning you can take responsibility for your condition. You have to utilize the resources. You have to get educated. You have to utilize what’s out there, and you have to advocate for something better too,” Abboud said. 

Gartner added that students should advocate together.

“Talk — you’re not alone. Advocate with your housemates, to your landlord. I know these landlords are intimidating, but there’s power in numbers,” Gartner said.

Attendees also asked how the university could be held responsible for the crisis.

Gartner said that the settlement the university had reached came with strict timelines for the building of housing, such as the upcoming San Benito Housing complex, and would be forced to pay $1 million if they failed to meet these deadlines. The San Benito Housing project is set to be finished with construction by fall 2027.

Arnold said she hopes that attendees learned more about the resources available and how to better self-advocate.

“I hope that they came away smarter. They realized that what they may be experiencing, even if they knew it wasn’t normal, they start to realize, no, it’s really not normal,” Arnold said. “I hope that they want to continue addressing housing and not just [take] information but [find] a way to involve themselves in an advocacy role.” 

A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the May 1, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.