Staff

Staff members at UCSB are responsible for keeping undergraduates fed and facilities clean. Though their labor is intensive and taxiing on the body, they are an underserved group on campus. The demographic of staff members that our research focused on are people that are employed by UCSB but are not lecturers. This includes what we refer to as “service workers” on UCSB’s campus, who are employed in mostly two sectors: custodial or food service. Our question was as follows: how does the cost of living and its availability in the area around the university affect who lives nearby campus and who must commute from farther distances? By researching the “staff” group at UCSB, we gained insight into the structural causes of why employees of the school tend to commute from longer distances than the undergraduate population. We found that the school’s failure to address the number of workers that need housing has caused great stress on staff members who have to commute and therefore miss out on important aspects of their personal lives. Though there have been projects proposed to house staff and faculty, zoning laws and opposition from local Goleta residents have stalled these projects, namely the Ocean Road units which have been postponed for over 20 years. The lack of affordable housing provided by the school places pressure on the surrounding community and housing market. Housing in the Santa Barbara area, though, is unaffordable especially on a UC service worker’s wage. Thus, staff workers must find housing outside of the Santa Barbara area. Taking into consideration the early morning and even graveyard shift hours, UCSB service workers spend a significant amount of time commuting to and from work at odd hours of the day. Staff members deserve to have affordable housing offered by the university to alleviate the stress of long commutes that add irrecoverable time and energy to the already long and exhausting work day.

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Study aims

History of Staff Housing

The history of housing for non-academic staff at the University of California, Santa Barbara is better reflected in the housing challenges that are connected to the high cost of living within the surrounding cities of Goleta and Santa Barbara.

When the university expanded and the enrollment increased, thousands of staff members were hired to work in areas such as dining services, custodial work, administration, and facilities management. At the same time, most of the university housing development focused on housing the growing population of undergraduate students rather than staff members. A choice that resulted in many non-academic employees searching for housing in the private rental market, which has slowly become increasingly expensive over the years, began to create challenges in obtaining housing nearby the university. 

Eventually, staff wages were outpaced by the cost of living as Santa Barbara County became one of the most expensive housing markets in California by the early 2000s. To address this issue, UCSB built the Sierra Madre Apartments, a 35 units complex near the campus, for its staff and faculty. However, given the limited units available, this housing option is not accessible to most staff members working at the university.

Due to the limited staff housing available near campus, many UCSB employees now commute from nearby cities in and outside Santa Barbara County where rentals are slightly affordable, and less competitive. Many of these workers make 40-90 minute commute from places such as Lompoc, Santa Maria, Buellton and Ventura in order to work at UCSB.

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Our Approach

Through examining staff housing insecurity at UC Santa Barbara, our group first looked into the housing market data from Santa Barbara County and surrounding cities such as Goleta, Ventura, and Santa Maria, where we looked into the rent prices, housing prices, and affordable housing unit options. We compared housing costs and estimated UC Santa Barbara staff wages to determine whether living near campus is feasible for a UC Santa Barbara professor, faculty member, or other University employee. In addition, we spoke with several professors to obtain their perspectives on the housing crisis in the area.

Policies and Institutions

Off-Campus Housing and Ocean Road Project Delays, Local Zoning Laws and Housing Supply Restrictions, and California Wage Structure and Public University Compensation Policies

There are a number of policies and institutions that affect the lack of housing for UCSB staff members. One big reason is the University of California’s housing policy, which gives undergraduate students priority on living off campus. Due to this, staff members cannot go into university residences very often. The Sierra Madre Apartments are the only place for staff to rent currently, with 18 units designated for the population. There are two other locations for staff members to live, but these units are extremely difficult to buy. Staff members must enter long waiting lists or find a resident looking to resell their property. There are other staff housing options that are under construction, namely the Ocean Road and Staff Housing Project. First suggested in 2005, this project was supposed to create a whopping 540 staff housing units. The project had been put off for almost twenty years, although it has finally began construction as of 2025. Due to the sparse housing opportunities, many of UCSB service workers are forced to live outside of the Santa Barbara area. For example, most staff commute to work from locations like Ventura or Santa Maria. Additionally, Goleta and Santa Barbara’s zoning restrictions also make it hard to build new housing. Moreover, UC’s wage levels and salaries do not often meet the high cost of living in Santa Barbara. Many UCSB service employees’ salary is set by collective bargaining agreements and the UC system pay scales. These salaries might cover the minimum wage, but they might not be enough to cover the outrageous cost of living in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is one of California’s most expensive real estate markets. Additionally, staff members have a rent burden, which occurs when they spend more than 30% of their income on housing because housing expenses are increasing more quickly than wages. This puts more financial hardship on workers who have children (as seen in UC health plan data). Regional housing differences are not taken into consideration by the institutional wage structure, which results in a mismatch between housing expenses and income.

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Findings and Solution

How Do Long Commutes and High-Rent Affect Staff and Faculty at UCSB?

With the high cost of living in Goleta and Santa Barbara, this leaves staff members at UCSB with the options to either commute from areas where the cost of living is more affordable or pay the high cost of rent or mortgages. However, the cost of commuting long distances takes time away from a staff member’s personal and family time. When facing long commute times, it is inevitable to not experience traffic build up which can cause an increase in stress and irritability. Santa Barbara is also the fifth most expensive city in the state of California which brings forth the problem of paying high rent in order to work near the university (Barhoum et al.). The burden of the high cost of living results in staff members being cost-burdened. As a result, they are less likely to be able to afford leisure expenses as they are forced to budget their salary into paying their rent/ mortgages, groceries, healthcare, and gas expenses. Not only that, but staff members are more likely to make the sacrifice of paying high rent to ultimately live in poor quality conditions because of the lack of affordable housing. 

What Could Help?

In order for housing insecurity to decrease, solutions need to be implemented. For the staff population at UCSB, we will propose a short-term, mid-term, and long-term solution to create more affordable housing for this population. A short-term solution is to increase staff wages. The University of California, Santa Barbara would be best positioned to implement this solution because they are in charge of paying staff salary. The median household salary in California is about $100,000 and UCSB staff members are, on average, making below this amount. Increased wages are listed as a short-term solution because housing rates continue to increase each year. Therefore, increasing wages will only provide temporary relief as housing prices are expected to continue rising. 

A mid-term solution that we propose is for the university to finish the Ocean Road project. This project is projected to build 540 faculty residential units including 180 townhomes and 360 rental housing units that would be prioritized to faculty and staff at UCSB. As mentioned above, this project was originally proposed in 2005 and had been expected to be completed by 2025. We do not currently have a projection of when the project will be completed, but it is the greatest attempt at an adjustment of housing to the increasing number of UCSB staff, faculty, and students. The university would be best positioned to implement this solution because they had previously agreed to this contract. When the university inevitably increases the number of students, the amount of faculty and staff will also increase. 

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Poster