Kiyoko Thomas

UC Berkeley students continue to struggle with housing insecurity as the COVID-19 pandemic brought on financial strain and limited housing.

With about a quarter of UC Berkeley students seeking basic needs assistance, campus and student organizations have worked to address student food insecurity, among other concerns.

The The UC Berkeley Student Advocate’s Office and Basic Needs Center, along with others, recently established an emergency rental assistance program.

The Bay Area is experiencing a housing crisis, and UC Berkeley students are not unscathed. California legislators and local activists, however, are working to increase low-cost housing for students, and resources are available on campus to aid people struggling with housing insecurity.

The Basic Needs Center opened its doors to the campus community Monday, making it the first center on campus to offer a wide variety of resource assistance programs to students.

The UC Berkeley Basic Needs Center officially opened its doors Monday to students without access to certain resources, aggregating resource-assistance programs into one area for the first time in the campus’ history.

In February 2019, UC Berkeley’s Basic Needs Center will open on the lower level of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union. The center is the first of its kind on campus.