Cal Poly Humboldt students live in vehicles to afford college. They were ordered off campus.
Maddy Montiel and Brad Butterfield marveled at the community they found this semester at Cal Poly Humboldt.
Montiel, an environmental science major, and Butterfield, a journalism major, had lived in their vehicles for several years, the only way, they said, that they could afford to attend college. They usually found parking in campus lots or on nearby streets.
But the pair and about 15 others like them — students living in sedans, aging campers, a converted bus, who could afford a $315 annual parking permit but not rent — found one another on campus parking lot G11. They started parking together in a row of spaces and named their community "the line." They shared resources: propane tanks to heat their living quarters, ovens to cook meals. They helped one another seal leaky roofs and formed an official campus club aiming to secure a mailing address.
They felt safe.
"None of us have ever had something like that before," said Montiel, 27. "People who live like this don't really congregate, and try to stay out of view."
Then the notices arrived late last month. The university was going to enforce a campus policy, written into parking regulations, that prohibits overnight camping. Remove vehicles by noon on Nov. 12, or they could be towed and students could face disciplinary action, the letter said.
Montiel and Butterfield moved their vehicles to another campus parking lot, hoping the university would back down if they became less visible. They found two spots under redwood trees at the edge of campus. Others from G11 scattered, driven back into hiding.
On the morning of Nov. 13, several students who stayed at G11 and other campus lots awoke to discover parking violations on their windshields, a $53 fine for living overnight in their vehicles, $40 for those whose vehicles were too large for one spot.
The actions by Humboldt — defended by university officials as necessary for health and safety — provide an up-close look at how low-income California State University students determined to earn a college degree struggle to meet their basic needs amid the state's student affordable housing crisis.
"We're putting everything we have into our education in order to be here," Montiel said. "For them to just keep putting all of this added pressure onto us just seems really unnecessarily cruel."
The campus-wide email landed at the end of October: The university would soon prohibit students from sleeping in cars.
"Overnight camping in University parking lots creates unsanitary and unsafe conditions for both those encamped and for our campus community at large," the email said. "The University Police Department and other campus offices have taken calls from concerned members of the campus community expressing fear and frustration about the situation."
Days later, three administrators visited students parked in G11 to share details about the enforcement, said Butterfield, 26.
"This is a direct response to the public health and safety concerns that have stemmed from overnight activity in University parking lots," said a letter given to students. The university would provide temporary emergency housing to students through the end of the semester, which ends in December, or would help students identify campsites or other locations where they could park off campus.
Tom Jackson, Cal Poly Humboldt's president, declined an interview request through spokesperson Aileen Yoo, who said university staff is also available to help students find longer-term housing solutions.
"These aren't evictions. The University is enforcing a long-standing parking policy," Yoo said in an email.
In response, faculty in the sociology department wrote a letter to university officials, condemning them for upholding a policy that "criminalizes" the students. The message to the campus community "framed our houseless students as a group of people who are feared, clearly intimidating them to get them off campus," the letter said.
"There are ways that we can address this in a way that best serves our students and community," said Tony Silvaggio, chair of the sociology department and vice president of the Humboldt chapter of the California Faculty Assn. "And it's not just kicking them off campus to live on the streets somewhere else."
The University Senate, a campus governing body, passed a resolution urging the university to suspend its enforcement of the parking policy until the end of the academic year, include students in decision-making and explore "safe parking" options on campus.
The students of G11 started an online petition, pushing back against the characterization that they are unsanitary or create danger. The students said they went out of their way to pick up trash and to maintain a clean environment.
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