The Graduate Student Association and Associated Students at UC Davis have formed a joint task force to address the housing crisis in Davis. The task force will research the causes of the shortage and issue recommendations to the university and city. They will gather community feedback through public meetings and surveys on the personal impacts of the crisis. By the end of spring quarter 2017, the task force will produce a report emphasizing the human impacts to bring to policymakers. The task force is composed of graduate and undergraduate students from various fields and is chaired by Matthew Palm.

1. FORMATION OF JOINT UCD GSA - ASUCD HOUSING TASK FORCE
The Graduate Student Association and Associated Students at UC Davis have formed a student group to
develop a report to identify the causes of the housing shortage and issue policy recommendations for the
crisis.
DAVIS, California – Students at the University of California, Davis are engaging the housing crisis on campus
and in their community. Increasing housing insecurity poses a problem for all undergraduate and graduate
students, as well as campus faculty. Rental vacancy rates in the city of Davis are at all-time lows of 0.2%,
and now, 70% of UC Davis graduate students are “rent burdened,” as defined by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development. Housing availability and affordability directly reduces the ability of UC
Davis to retain its students, due to increasing attendance costs. Additionally, more and more students are
forced to move out of the city of Davis due to lacking, affordable housing options, resulting in augmented
traffic, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
In response to the housing crisis, both the GSA and ASUCD passed a resolution to form the “Joint
ASUCD-UCD GSA Housing Task Force.” The Housing Task Force is a student led and organized group
assembled to identify viable solutions for addressing the housing crisis facing the Davis community. Over
the next few months, the Housing Task Force will be researching the various causes of the housing crisis
and their impact on current and future students. With the gathered data, the Housing Task Force will
construct feasible policy recommendations for the UC Davis senate and City of Davis, to best alleviate this
crisis.
Starting January of 2017, the Housing Task Force will organize ways to seek direct feedback for the housing
crisis, with planned public meetings and community surveys focusing on the personal impact experienced
by the student and city communities. This body will consequently produce a report before the end of Spring
quarter 2017, emphasizing the personalization of the housing crisis, to be brought to university and
governmental bodies responsible for housing policy.
The Housing Task Force is composed of undergraduate and graduate students, chaired by Matthew Palm.
Graduate student members include: Don Gibson 4​th
year PhD candidate Integrative Genetics and Genomics,
Jonathan Favero 3​rd
year PhD Music Composition and Theory, and Cai Thorman 3​rd
year PhD Study of
Religion. Undergraduate students members include: Tori Morin 3​rd
year Sustainable Design, Christian
Pascual 3​rd ​
year Communications, and Emily Gu 3​rd​
year Sustainable Environmental Design & Economics.
For more information about the Housing Task Force, contact Matthew Palm at ​mpalm@ucdavis.edu​.