Given the ongoing housing crisis at UC Santa Barbara and Isla Vista, many students begin looking for next year’s lease during fall quarter, often being first-time renters. The Isla Vista Tenants Union provides housing-related services, such as educating tenants on their rights and acting as a liaison when housing issues arise, to students who are Isla Vista residents.
The services that the IVTU provides includes comparing off-campus housing options, their 23 “Tenant Associations” and working with other organizations to help fulfill students’ financial housing needs. Nexus file photo
Many I.V. residents deal with various housing issues, including mold, bluff safety and legal disputes.
Fourth-year sociology major and Chair of the Isla Vista Tenants Union (IVTU) Makeila Wilson said the IVTU began about 40 years ago as an advocacy group, until it was eventually absorbed by Associated Students (A.S.).
The services that the IVTU provides includes comparing off-campus housing options, their 23 “Tenant Associations” across several social media platforms, helping students reach out to the Legal Resource Center (LRC) and working with other organizations to help fulfill students’ financial housing needs.
According to the IVTU Guide for First-Time Tenants, the average age of an I.V. resident is about 20.6 years old. In addition, the roughly 1.85 square-mile town houses about 20,000 residents, creating a high population density. This manifests itself in crowded living situations.
Per previous Nexus reporting, the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment increased by approximately 34% from 2015 to 2021. In 2022, the median cost of rent in Isla Vista for two-bedroom units of any housing type was higher than for any other locality in Santa Barbara.
Students can directly ask the IVTU housing-related questions via its website, and receive answers within three to five business days. Wilson said that she receives many questions regarding how to break a lease, whether it be for roommate disputes or other extenuating circumstances.
“The apartments in Isla Vista are pretty old. They’re not well-maintained, and I just remind them that this is what you can do. You are within your right to hold rent if it gets pretty bad, or ask for compensation if you don’t have hot water, or your [air conditioner] or your heaters are not working,” Wilson said.
The average home in Isla Vista was built in 1973, according to Best Neighborhood, a website that collects residential data.
In order to avoid interpersonal conflict, Wilson recommended tenants have “honest conversations” with their roommates in order to avoid building resentment, which can lead to a “toxic household.” She also personally advised against moving in with one’s significant other to have your own “personal, intense space.”
Last year, the IVTU purchased and provided $5,000 worth of mold kits to I.V. residents, and will continue to distribute them when the rainy season begins in January. According to Wilson, the IVTU also provides a $6,000 grant to the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), which allows students to receive money if they have any pressing housing issues such as an eviction notice, overdraft, unemployment or other circumstances.
Wilson said the IVTU has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the A.S. Finance and Business Committee to allow shared funds to be used for housing-related projects that align with the IVTU’s mission.
“If they have any housing-related projects that they wanted to work on, they could ask us, and we have to mutually agree to use that money,” Wilson said. “But I think it works fine. They pretty much love all the ideas and how we use our money.”
As far as any legal disputes, Wilson clarified that the IVTU tries not to give any legal counseling, but rather advises residents in the right direction. IVTU’s Legal Chair and fourth-year political science major Evan Floisand said they also provide templates for tenants to use when reaching out to landlords.
Floisand said the IVTU is working on a service to compile information on leasing companies in I.V., including the dates their applications open and what services different companies offer. He said this resource will hopefully be available sometime this fall.
Wilson advises tenants dealing with housing issues to consult the A.S. LRC, which provides students with free legal counseling. The LRC provides students with information, referrals or anything that “can assist you in identifying and resolving your legal problems.”
Wilson also spoke on the IVTU’s “Drinking Water Quality Report,” which was a collaboration with Engineers Without Borders (EWB), which compiled 20 drinking water tests collected in Goleta and I.V. in July and will be public sometime soon. The results were compared to California Title 22, which establishes standards for health and social services, including water quality.
In this report, they found that across 20 household drinking water samples, none of the parameters exceeded California’s primary health-based maximum contaminant level (MCL). The main issues observed were that several samples had elevated heterotrophic plate counts, indicating a higher bacteria presence, and a handful exceeded secondary recommended levels for total dissolved solids. While the water has “ascetic, taste, and odor problems,” the findings indicate “no acute safety concerns” at the time of the sampling.
As far as certain conditions first-time renters should avoid in I.V., Wilson advises tenants to avoid living in conditions such as overcrowded apartments or garages. As a solution, Wilson believes that the University building more residence halls will provide more students with adequate living conditions.
“I obviously would avoid [these conditions], just because I think your home is your safe space, and you should have a space to come home and relax. I acknowledge that that’s not everyone can get, and that’s unfortunate,” Wilson said.
The San Benito Student Housing project will add 2,224 beds and is scheduled for completion by fall 2027. The University also plans to add housing for 1,275 students on the east side of campus as part of Phase Two of its housing project.
The IVTU is also collaborating with Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) to build a bench in memory of victims who have fallen from the Del Playa Drive bluffs, with the intention of bringing awareness to bluff safety.
“So just kind of supporting [bluff safety], and showing that we know it’s dangerous, and raising awareness for that,” Wilson said. “There’s nothing really to commemorate [the victims], which I think is pretty sad, just because they were students just like us, and they were victims of the unsafety of the cliffs.”
Wilson advises students to “stay positive” when struggling with housing issues and urges students to advocate for their housing needs.
“I really want students to get involved and tell us what [the IVTU] should be doing,” Wilson said “So I encourage them to just reach out and whatever they need, just let us know, and we’ll see if we can make it happen.”
Michelle Cisneros contributed reporting to this article.
