Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Volume 152 No. 24 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
CVB resident complaints accumulate, housing services releases an apology By Victoria Franco
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STAFF WRITER
As she walked into the laundry facility inside of the Campus Village Building B, while cradling her sack of messy laundry, this student was disappointed, but not surprised to see a bunch of washing machines out of order. Accounting sophomore Vanessa Armendariz said, “It’s frustrating having washers being broken all the time.” The common issue among students is not only high dorm costs, but also not having adequate facilities such as working washing machines. A post on the SAMMY app gave students the platform to discuss issues regarding on campus housing. User Talia DuBois said, “For the longest time my water temp in the shower was either hot as Satan or as cold as the arctic.” Following DuBois’ reply, other students took to the app to share that they too had been victims of little-to-no-hot water in the dorm showers, despite the outstanding rates of rent.
JONATHAN AUSTIN | SPARTAN DAILY
1) More than a dozen washing machines in the dormitory building are not functioning, some have been labeled “out of order.” 2) University Housing Services posted fl yers around the laundry room.
Approximately 14 washing machines, as of yesterday, in the Campus Village Building B laundry room have been labeled “out of order” despite various students being assigned to the particular laundry unit. Psychology junior Sam Mayes
claimed that although there are more washers available to use, various machines do not work properly. “We’re paying for the amenities and the laundry room [with our renting fees], but you still have to pay to use them,” Mayes said. The university mandates that
Public members express concerns at VTA meeting By Jozy Prabhu STAFF WRITER
Following a midnight rally protesting VTA’s finalization of the new transit plan, which includes cutting the overnight Route 22, members of the public attended the board meeting in the evening on March 7. “I know the VTA has to make certain decisions to balance their budget,” said Sachin Radhakrishnan, formal policy aide of the City of San Jose. “But there are some decisions they want to make that I think, and a lot of people think, are vital resources for the community.” According to Radhakrishnan, members of the VTA board of directors are trying to cut hours 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. This has been met with strong dissent from the citizens of San Jose and other organizations including the Green Party and housing advocates. “[Route 22 riders] are paying bus
students pay a fee to access the washing machines in the dorm units, however Mayes said he is frustrated that his money is going toward facilities that don’t work. “I’ve ruined clothing and I had to spend money to get clothing done somewhere else, when it is
something I’m already paying for with my rent,” he said. South Bay Tenants Assembly member Jugu Sandhu shared her thoughts about universities not only worrying about enough housing for
CAMPUS IMAGE
Trail mix packaging class
drivers to stay out of the cold,” said Radhakrishnan. “Some of them are working. Some of them are families that their kid needs to sleep before school.” Radhakrishnan wanted the VTA to know that Route 22 is not taken for granted. “People value your service, and we’re asking you to keep it,” said Radhakrishnan. Shaun Cartwright, housing rights advocate and co-founder of South Bay Tenants Union, spoke to the board during public comment about the human costs that will ensue if Route 22 is cut. “The [Route] 22 has become the best [homeless] shelter that we have,” said Cartwright. “It shouldn’t be our best defacto shelter but it is.” Cartwright said 158 homeless people died in San Jose last year. PROTEST | Page 2
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CALEB RAMOS | SPARTAN DAILY
Industrial and systems engineering junior Brian Song assembles trail mix during the measurement work design class. The packages eventually go to campus food pantries.
Rotary Club offers scholarship for best housing report By Mauricio La Plante STAFF WRITER
San Jose State students could receive a scholarship and other resources as an award for producing a comprehensive report to build affordable housing in the Silicon Valley. The Rotary Club of San Jose committed to offer a scholarship to students in the Urban and Regional
Planning program who are studying homelessness and affordable housing. However, the program may expand to include both graduates and undergraduates who are interested in competing to produce the report, according to Jeffrey Hare, an attorney and member of the San Jose Rotary Club. The scholarship fund would go to the student
or team of students that produce the most comprehensive report on the best way to house the homeless, according to Hare. The amount of funds have been undetermined. Hare announced the scholarship during a panel titled “Seeking Solutions to the Affordable Housing Crisis” in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, on Tuesday. He did not lay out specific
details on how much money the rotary club has fundraised for the scholarship, but said that the club is looking for innovative approaches to take on some of the hurdles the city of San Jose faces. The city of San Jose has a goal to build 10,000 affordable housing units by 2022, according to the city’s Housing Department. At the end of 2018, it had built around 946 housing units.
During a city council meeting on Feb. 5, staff announced that the city was in the works to build 1,144 new affordable housing units. The city had also secured $98 million from a city investment and $94 million in Measure A funding, a bond measure for affordable housing in Santa Clara County that was passed in 2016. He explained how
displacement isn’t only caused by poverty and that cities like San Jose need to have resources for displaced residents that pour into the Bay Area looking for housing. “Try something that has never been tried before,” Hare said. A panel of five experts on homelessness discussed issues on housing the unsheltered in INITIATIVE | Page 2