Can housing spending be transparent to the students?

While Covid-19 has created an additional housing crisis due to loss of wages and medical insecurity, there is an already pre-existing housing crisis before the pandemic. Student wages do not steadily grow in correlation with the raise in rent (both within UCLA housing and in the greater LA area). What is the best way to mitigate student’s financial burden in the longer term post-pandemic? Can housing and the student union work together in order to negotiate a raise in student wages that reflects the raise in rent in the long term? Something needs to be done because most students are struggling financially in some capacity.

Why does UCLA threaten students with collections departments if they have overdue housing payments and have left housing? Same goes for actually placing holds before escalating for this? All during a pandemic, when collections are barred at the state level until March 2021?

Why do our housing contracts allow for University Housing to punish students in their academic/professional life for inability to pay rent (here I am referring in particular to the academic hold clause)? No landlord outside a university has the ability to directly impact a renter’s access to work-related needs (like transcripts and enrollment) or health needs. However, the way our contracts are worded now, the university acts as companies historically did in company towns - with the ability to impact every sector of a student’s life just because they cannot pay. Isn’t having the ability to evict enough?

Why does UCLA Housing continue to increase rent in the middle of a pandemic?

Why can’t UCLA Housing cancel rent for its most vulnerable renters (us) who are also the only renters they have left? (I.e., University Village, in particular, caters to students with families and dependents.)

Why hasn’t UCLA Housing adjusted rent prices (even before the housing crisis) given, as our survey shows, that the majority of renters were before the pandemic and are now experiencing rent burden according to federal standards (that is, spending more than 60% of their salary on rent)?