Editor’s Note: This news article is the first of a two-part series on Stanford’s role in the Bay Area housing crisis. The second part, a first-person feature, will be published in the coming days.
As some 4,000 parents descended on campus for Stanford’s family weekend, a student group used the opportunity raise awareness of the university’s role in the Bay Area’s critical housing crisis.On the morning of Friday, Feb. 23, as parents poured out of Memorial Auditorium after a welcome speech from Vice Provost Persis Drell, they were met by two ten-foot house fronts erected in front of the auditorium. The art pieces had messages across their fronts: “Our neighbors are being displaced on S[tanford]’s watch” and “Why can’t worker’s live on campus? Why can’t we provide for our whole S[tanford]family?”
As some curious parents approached the signs, members of SCoPE 2035—Stanford Coalition for an Equitable 2035 (SCoPE)—handed out flyers and explained the basics of the housing crisis: an ongoing catastrophe that has seen home prices and rent explode, making the Bay Area one of the most expensive places to live in the world.
Members of SCoPE told parents how in the Ravenswood School District—less than three miles from Stanford’s campus—over 37 percent of student are homeless. In Santa Clara County alone, the number of homeless people has increased from 6,556 people in 2015 to over 7,394 people (a recent county survey judged that of that number, 2,305 are unaccompanied children or transition-aged youth).
As Stanford—a university with an endowment worth more than $24.8 billion—finds its surrounding community in such dire conditions, students in SCoPE are asking for the university to do more to stem the crisis.
SCoPE 2035 formed in the fall of 2016 after students in the Housing Justice Research Lab (an Urban Studies class) began researching Stanford’s proposed General Use Permit, or “GUP,” as SCoPE members call it.
At first glance, the GUP seems inaccessibly boring—it is over 1,000 pages of detailed plans that Stanford has offered the county of Santa Clara to approve the university’s proposed development over the next 18 years. Though mired in municipal code and land use law, members of SCoPE believe that amending the GUP has the power to dramatically alter what role Stanford plays in the housing crisis.
“Stanford fuels the problems that are causing the housing crisis, and we believe that the GUP is an opportunity for Stanford to be a solution to the problem,” explained Nani Friedman ’20, a founding member of SCoPE.
Members of SCoPE point to important clause in Stanford’s original GUP agreement with Santa Clara County in 2000: as a condition for approval, the county required the university to either build or fund affordable housing for every square foot of new buildings Stanford erected. Stanford elected to pay $25.7 million to a county fund to finance new, affordable housing developments.
This time around, the university has proposed to contribute $56 million—as a capped amount—to the county’s fund. However, SCoPE thinks the university could be doing more for the surrounding area—and also for the university’s own workers. As SCoPE members told Stanford Politics, much of their advocacy follows the lead of SEIU Local 2007, the union that represents directly employed Stanford service workers.
“When we found out about the GUP and the university’s plans for housing, we immediately started getting involved,” says Jose Escañuela, SEIU 2007’s incoming president. Escañuela told Stanford Politics that his union’s hope is that the university will commit to building affordable, on-campus housing for workers.
As of now, Escañuela knows of union members commuting to work from as far away Manteca and Tracy in California’s Central Valley. While home prices are cheaper in “the other valley,” worker’s commutes can be as long as two hours in either direction—leading to a loss of four hours each day that could otherwise be spent with family, or resting.
Escañuela and SEIU 2007 hope to use the GUP’s approval process to encourage the university and Santa Clara County to reach an agreement that leads to more below market rate housing being built for Stanford workers on—or nearby—campus.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to push the university to really address the housing situation for its workers,” says Escañuela.
In a comprehensive statement university spokesperson EJ Miranda provided to Stanford Politics, Miranda noted that Stanford already provides 1,000 rental units that are available to faculty and staff—180 of which are below market rate. However, as of now, Escañuela says he only knows of three union workers who live in this housing.
The statement Miranda provided went on to describe the university’s position on the matter of housing:
Housing availability and affordability is a major concern for the Stanford community and our region. The university has placed a priority on housing – particularly developing housing for Stanford students and employees – and intends to continue making further progress.
Miranda says that the Stanford staff members have met directly with students in SCoPE and continue to welcome their participation in the GUP process. He also described ways Stanford has made housing a priority in the GUP:
The proposed 2018 GUP would authorize Stanford to build 3,150 net new on-campus housing units, all of which will be accommodated within the core campus. Our application also proposes a $56 million contribution toward affordable housing in the area, which can be leveraged into additional investment from public and private sources.
An environmental impact report—a pre-condition of the GUP—will be finalized in the early fall of this year, and the GUP will be decided on by the county soon after. In the meantime, SEIU Local 2007 and SCoPE 2035 intend to continue their push to for the university to increase its commitment to providing affordable housing.
Jack Herrera is a staff news writer for Stanford Politics.