With Arcata’s aversion to development, HSU students compete for off-campus housing.
Perhaps the most devastating effect is on single parents. With no family units on the HSU campus, Brandi Fleeks, a 28-year-old mother and transfer student from Lancaster, has been looking for a place to live off campus in Arcata since March. As of Sept. 14 she hasn’t found anything.
During the first week of school, Fleeks was one of at least a dozen other students at the local Motel 6. Rates are $44.99 a day during the week and $54.99 on weekends. This adds up to well over a $1000 a month with no amenities. It is far from the $750 Fleeks can afford to pay.
To make matters worse, Fleeks attends classes during the week and drives to Lancaster on the weekends to see her seven-year-old son.
“I don’t want him to live in a motel room,” Fleeks said. “I was looking for places on Craigslist, because all the property management places require you to look at the place first, and that’s really hard to do from Lancaster. They also wanted me to prove that I make three times the amount of rent, that’s also hard to do as a student.”
HSU senior Carrie Schaden said she started camping with her boyfriend in July, and just found a place. “There were vacancies, but there was so much competition. When we would get to a location, there would be 10 others waiting. When I was a freshman it was easier to find a place,” she said.
HSU hired Ira Fink and consultants to assess the housing situation in 2006. According to a report from the consulting firm, there is a modest supply of off-campus housing in Arcata, 97 percent of which is already occupied at current enrollment levels. The report reads, “The insufficient supply of on-campus housing, coupled with the extremely low vacancy rate and modest amount of housing in Arcata creates a situation where the lack of housing affects enrollment, as students choose to attend campuses elsewhere.”
When asked about why there was a shortage of housing in Arcata, John Capaccio, assistant vice president of enrollment management and housing, said. “I’m not sure there is actually. But the Arcata Housing Element [report] will help answer this question. One of the problems is that local housing is being used for other purposes than housing persons.” Capaccio is referring to what people often attribute the lack of housing and rising rents to, marijuana growers.
Long time local-timber worker and relative of an HSU faculty member, K.C. Wood, refutes the assertion made by Capaccio in regards to the negative impact of growers. Rather than blaming the growers, he blames homeowners and sees greed as the main factor to housing shortages, especially since the collapse of the local-timber industry.
Wood feels that property owners love growers. Some growers are honest about what they do, and are willing to pay home owners more for rent space so they can grow. “It’s all about the money,” Wood said. “We used to pay $600 a month for a place that now rents for $1200.”
Wood also said that if it weren’t for growers a lot of places would be vacant. “College students would get five people together and rent one place, while one grower will rent several places and pay much higher rents. That’s the only thing keeping this city alive.”
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