The partnership between the transitional housing shelter and the student government has led to the creation of a new subunit and highlights new long-term priorities for addressing basic needs
By SAIRAKSHA THIRUNAVUKKARASU — campus@theaggie.org
As more college students across the country begin to live out of their cars, it is clear that student housing insecurity is one of the most prevalent challenges in higher education today. At the UC Davis campus, it is the reason why Aggie House exists.
What is Aggie House?
In a 2024 university survey, 19% of UC Davis undergraduates reported that they were sometimes or often unable to pay their housing costs on time; 50% said that they had worried about being able to cover their housing costs.
Motivated by similar statistics in 2019, a group of students who, then part of the ASUCD Housing and Transportation Committee (HTAC), sought to offer further emergency housing options for the undergraduate population.
This led to the formation of Aggie House in 2021, a transitional housing shelter run by students. With a staff composed entirely of volunteers, Aggie House currently operates at a townhouse with The Belfry in Downtown Davis and holds a maximum of nine students.
Aggie House External Co-President Isabella Navarrette, a third-year political science and sociology double major, said that the shelter is committed to getting students back on their feet.
“This organization is truly built with the mission of helping students,” Navarette said in an interview. “We provide residents up to a year of free housing, free meals and case management services — one of the most beneficial parts of our program — which helps residents find more stable housing.”
Since their founding, they have served over 70 residents and served as a model for similar shelters at UC Los Angeles, University of Southern California and several other college campuses.
Still, some within the student government want to help Aggie House do more.
ASUCD Collaboration and VESTA
For years, Aggie House and HTAC have been in the talks for a potential collaboration, both sharing the same goal of addressing housing insecurity.
HTAC Chair Christina Smith, a fourth-year political science – public service major, talked about goals with accepting residents.
“They have had over 240 applicants since their inception but haven’t been able to take on all those applicants,” Smith said. “We want more residents to be able to join.”
In the beginning of this year, Aggie House and ASUCD formed a long-anticipated partnership which demonstrated the student government’s commitment to housing and basic needs for now and the future.
“[Smith helped] Aggie House as a student organization get a foot in the door of ASUCD,” Navarette said. “They helped craft up the legislation that needed to go to the Senate and get money as well as generally just advocating for us and making our mission known.”
These efforts led to the creation of a new ASUCD subunit under the existing Housing Advising for Undergraduate Students (HAUS) — mostly responsible for holding quarterly housing fairs — called the Vital Emergency Shelter and Transitional Assistance (VESTA) in late February.
“Aggie House will still retain our status as a registered student organization, so we still have our autonomy in that way,” Navarrette said. “Our relationship with VESTA is strictly a financial partnership as they provide us with rent costs for next year.”
Having relied entirely on grant funding in the past, Aggie House hopes their partnership with ASUCD will bring a newfound stability to the organization.
“Institutional support through ASUCD is a really big milestone for us because we’re not as worried about just surviving as a shelter, but now we have a little bit of protection and security that the university provides,” Navarrette said.
Potential Move to Russell Park
Along with the creation of VESTA, ASUCD President Gaius Ilupeju announced that the Senate is allocating $80,000 for Aggie House’s operations to be conducted in a property at Russell Park for the 2025-26 academic year. The money is under VESTA’s control and thus goes in the larger HAUS budget. HTAC does not handle finances and instead works with Aggie House on external advocacy.
The new property seeks to combat previous challenges including inconsistent funding, lack of space for more residents and disability access accommodations.
“[Though] they have a wonderful house currently at The Belfry, you can’t even get a wheelchair through on the bottom floor,” Smith said.
While ASUCD previously stated that Aggie House will definitively move to the Russell Park location in February, and the latter confirmed that they have received an offer from the complex and are leaning toward that location, both groups told The Aggie in late May that they are still in the process of finalizing the move.
Aggie House’s main priority is to secure a bigger property that will allow for increased capacity.
With the Russell Park location, however, they will be able to hold a lot more people than their current capacity with The Belfry. At the moment, Aggie House projects that 10 bedrooms will be available at Russell Park, with some of the rooms likely being double/triple capacity.
As for the allocated money, Navarrette told The Aggie that the $80,000 is strictly going toward rent for Russell Park while any operational expenses Aggie House has will be covered by grants they’ve already received for the upcoming year.
“Though we’re not entirely sure how much our operational and programming expenses are going to be with this increased resident load, that is not our primary concern for this upcoming year,” Navarette said. “In the years following, we hope to have the same amount of stability.”
Challenges in Housing
HAUS Unit Director Sam Hopwood, a fourth-year political science major, is aware that ASUCD and Aggie House are fighting an uphill battle.
“The UC, in my opinion, is not doing the job of getting students housed on an administrative level,” Hopwood said, who also pointed to failures at the state and federal level. “I see ASUCD as a student government that is capable and has the responsibility of providing students with their basic needs.”
Recently, Ordinance 2670 in Davis criminalized public camping so those experiencing homelessness could be penalized for acts such as sleeping on park benches.
“If you don’t have housing and have a misdemeanor record, it’s much harder to try and get housing,” Smith said. “It’s creating this vicious cycle of homeless people never escaping from the correctional system. We have a systemic problem.”
Even with the Russel House plan coming to fruition, housing challenges within the project have already arisen.
“It’s going to be a lot more residents next year and therefore an increased burden on our case management team that works primarily with residents and connects them to additional resources,” Navarrette said. The long-term vision for ASUCD is that VESTA will not just serve Aggie House but other housing initiatives and programs in the future to further support students.
“In an ideal world, we don’t want Aggie House to exist,” Smith said. “We’re going to get out of the game if there’s no housing insecurity for undergraduates, which is the best possible situation.”
Next Steps in Student Housing
Recently, HTAC — which until recently was part of the ASUCD executive branch — moved back to the legislative branch in order to expedite their hiring timeline so the future committee members can be more prepared with housing projects when starting the next academic year.
Despite the challenges they face, the collaboration between the ASCUD Executive Team, HAUS, HTAC and Aggie House has led to what they hope will be a long-term partnership.
“If we were to think about ASUCD’s next big thing, especially as we go into the 2030s, I think this is it,” Ilupeju said of VESTA at the February meeting where it was created. “The direction we’ve been heading the last few years is working with campus partners to offer more robust services for students. That’s exactly what this does.”
Other ASUCD officials and bodies have collaborated on this project as well, with the ASCUD Pantry, External Affairs Commission and Student Housing and Dining Services have also extended their support.
“This is all a student-driven undergraduate initiative,” Smith said. “There were people who don’t have a whole lot of work experience but a whole lot of heart.”
Those interested in learning more about Aggie House or volunteering can contact them via email at aggiehousedavis@gmail.com.
“What we have in ASUCD and Aggie House is really special,” Hopwood said. “This is a bunch of 20- and 21-year-olds who are given money to do something really incredible.”
Written by: Sairaksha Thirunavukkarasu — campus@theaggie.org
