Rent Protest by Residents at UCI

The Verano Renters’ Assn. appreciates your article (July 8) about our campaign to lower rents in older-student housing at UC Irvine. Still, perhaps due to space considerations, several important points were omitted.

The article compares Verano rents ($425-$459) to those in Irvine ($750-$1,100) without making what we consider the crucial point: that the average income for the city is about four times that of the average Verano resident.

A typical Verano resident, a graduate student with a teaching assistantship, makes at most about $11,000 a year (under $34,000 is considered “low income” in Irvine!)--with no benefits (we have to buy our own health insurance).

Furthermore, anyone with this income is not allowed to take an extra job to supplement her or his income--and those who do anyway compromise their studies. Undergraduate Verano residents are in an even worse position. And the hardest hit of all are single parents, who pay the same rent as couples with two incomes.

The simple fact is that students who aren’t independently wealthy are being forced out of school. This fact is nothing less than a travesty of the very purpose of the University of California--to provide access to higher education to qualified students regardless of income or personal wealth.

The article mentions the 45 active members of the association but fails to note that almost 600 Verano residents have signed a petition making the association’s specific demands. We also have letters of endorsement from the mayor of Irvine and the Academic Senate, the highest faculty body on campus. Those in charge of Verano Place have simply become more concerned about their own career goals than about the residents.

JUDY OLSON

Verano Renters’ Assn.

Irvine