UCSC Camper Park sudden closure: New housing pickle as campus recycles 41 trailers

UC Santa Cruz abruptly closed Camper Park Wednesday, saying the 40-year-old trailer park had “significant health and safety concerns.”

The university began removing all of the 41 trailers Wednesday morning to recycle them. Located off of Heller Drive west of the Baskin School of Engineering, Camper Park was founded in 1984 after students demanded for years that the university provide a place for them to live in their trailers,

The move came a day after UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told Lookout that officials were not yet prepared to announce a decision on the park’s future.

UCSC students say they’re disheartened and disappointed to hear the university’s decision Wednesday to permanently close the park. 

“I feel frustrated,” said Camper Park resident Natalie Twilegar.  “I feel left in the dark, and I feel blindsided.” Twilegar, going into her third year this fall, has been a leading organizer on the efforts to keep the park open. This past academic year was her first year living in the small community surrounded by redwood trees. 

In February, 41 Camper Park residents were told they had to move out within three weeks after the university said fire safety, mold issues and rising maintenance requests had created an unsafe situation in the park.

Later, upon the students’ requests, the university allowed campers  to stay through the remainder of the spring quarter as long as they unhooked their propane tanks. The park is unoccupied during the summer months and no one is currently living there. 

In March, in response to students’ pleas to keep the park open for future years, university officials said they would conduct an assessment to determine the safety and sustainability of Camper Park and then announce a final decision at the end of the academic year if it would continue to operate for the upcoming years. 

Wednesday morning, when the university published a news release on the announcement of the closure, Twilegar said students saw the trailers towed out of the park.  

Twilegar said she and other students are heartbroken and confused after not hearing any updates about the status of reviews or findings for the past couple of months. She and others hadn’t finalized their housing plans for the upcoming fall because they hoped to move back in, but now they’ll be scrambling to find affordable housing for the fall. 

The trailers have long served as a lower-cost housing alternative. This past year, a unit in the park cost about $6,500 to $7,200 a year without a meal plan, compared to single units in the dorms that cost $21,429 with a meal plan.

“They’ve disappointed me by neglecting my many attempts to collaborate on reimagining the park as a student serving space for generations to come,” she said. “And they have disappointed me by leaving me out of a promised collaboration between student representatives and the health and safety team [to make a final decision].”

UCSC said its review process included input from the campus Fire Marshal’s office, officials from Environmental Health & Safety and from Campus Housing.

“After an extensive safety and sustainability review process, UC Santa Cruz is closing the Camper Park housing facility on Leonardo Lane,” school officials wrote. “This decision was reached due to the significant health and safety concerns.”

Twilegar said she attempted numerous times to get updates on reviews and safety checks of the park over the past couple of months, but the university repeatedly told her that there were no updates. She said that students were told they would be involved in the decision-making. 

“In early March, we were promised that the decision would be made in collaboration with the community,” she said. “And to me, that means that we’re involved in these conversations.” 

She says she and other students were “trying to stay in good faith with the administration,” but she says she repeatedly sought meetings and didn’t get responses about setting up meeting times. So, after receiving the news Wednesday, Twilegar was discouraged. 

Laura Arroyo, associate vice chancellor, Colleges, Housing and Educational Services, who started working at the university just over a week ago, told Lookout that there were several administrators involved in making the decision to close the park, in addition to her. They included Dave Keller, executive director of Housing Services and Facilities; Akirah Bradley-Armstrong, vice chancellor for student affairs and success; and other administrative leaders, she said. 

She said their decision considered the input that Camper Park residents provided during the spring quarter. Arroyo said a group of students were very focused on keeping the park open, but they also mentioned health and safety concerns. 

“They certainly acknowledged the fire safety concerns and the other health and safety concerns of the park and of the trailers themselves,” she said. “But they were very committed to them remaining open.” 

Arroyo said the final review includes walk-through results from the UCSC Fire Marshal’s office and reviews from maintenance workers on mold conditions and fire safety. She said the document is two to three pages long. Its details, she said:

• that the trailers lack fire sprinklers;
• that the trailers don’t have sufficient “lockability” to prevent break-ins;
• challenges with mold and air quality. 

Arroyo said simply purchasing new, higher quality trailers wouldn’t work as an alternative. Research found that trailers are a hazard for the type of long-term use they have had in Camper Park, she said. 

“For me, trailers were determined to be a safety hazard,” she said. “We could buy new trailers and then be in the same situation in five years. It’s always important to consider the mitigation, not just in this moment, but what we need to do for the history of our community and the future of our community.”

She said because of the condition of the trailers, the university decided to recycle them rather than sell them. The university started phasing out the older trailers in 2016 and replaced them with the trailers – new at that time – that were removed Wednesday. 

Arroyo and UCSC spokesperson Hernandez-Jason declined to provide a copy of UCSC’s review report on Wednesday, saying that it might be confidential.

“At this point, that’s not something that the university would naturally release,” she said.

Lookout has made a public records request for it.

In this controversy, both UCSC and the student campers voice similar concerns about health issues. 

Twilegar said the students, who say they experienced health issues from mold exposure, are considering filing a lawsuit. 

She and other students argue that the university neglected the trailers when they could have implemented mold prevention strategies, like unhooking propane tanks and prohibiting cooking – cooking worsens mold growth – putting dehumidifiers and other moisture-reducing tools. 

“We’re potentially looking into a lawsuit right now,” said Twilegar. “We’re gathering medical records from my neighbors who have gotten increasingly more sick after living in the trailers.” 

She said the students believe the university allowed students to live in the trailers this past year while knowing they were exposed to harmful levels of mold. Twilegar said there are about five students who are actively looking into filing a lawsuit. 

Arroyo, in response, said in the short time that she’s been at the university, the students’ safety has been her top priority. She added that when the university tried to relocate students in March, students requested to remain despite the concerns officials raised then.

“Students also pushed back on that decision and requested to stay,” she said. “So I would say that that’s important to note – that we were working with our students and felt that there were safety concerns and they also requested more time.” 

In the short term, Arroyo and Hernandez-Jason said there are no set plans for the use of the space. Hernandez-Jason said the university’s Long Range Development Plan lays out that region for potentially developing residential housing.

Going forward, Twilegar said she’s looking into finding off-campus housing. But she’ll miss the Camper Park community and the lifestyle they had there. 

While many of the residents have since graduated, and some found other housing options for the upcoming school year, about 14 residents who lived there this past year and were still hopeful to return this fall are now looking for housing, according to Twilegar. 

“It was the reason I decided to go to Santa Cruz,” said Twilegar. “There’s 14 of us who are actively in need of housing and can’t afford to live anywhere else in Santa Cruz besides the Camper Park.”