Help Maddy Pay For Housing in Santa Barbara

Madeline Castro is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hi, my name is Madeline Castro and I am a 4th year geography student at UC Santa Barbara, historian for the Isla Vista Community Relations Committee, team member at The Arbor on campus, caregiver, and a Fresno native. Santa Barbara is a beautiful but horribly expensive place to live as a student and worker from the comparatively cheaper San Joaquin Valley. I have paid more than expected for housing every single year since I've been at this school, having taken out multiple loans and worked 40 hours a week during the pandemic in a nursing facility while being a full-time student just to scrape by.

A housing problem has been years in the making, and at this point has become a full-blown crisis. Coronavirus has decreased the high density of people in IV, who want to take precaution against the disease. Remote work during the pandemic has drawn well-to-do people to the area who are gentrifying it in the process. UCSB is currently being sued by the city of Goleta for not providing housing to keep up with the growing population. As a result, the housing market here is tighter and pricier than it has ever been and UCSB cannot or will not help many of its students, thus making it virtually impossible for people like me to afford to live and learn here. The controversial Munger Hall, to be built after I graduate, is posed as a solution.

Currently, myself and hundreds of other students (some even in their cars) are living in hotels for fall quarter only, with no solution from UCSB housing in sight. We are facing exorbitant monthly rents with wages from jobs unable to meet these demands, and dropping out altogether is becoming more and more feasible. We need help urgently. After December 12th, we will become homeless.

This gofundme is primarily for my own rent, with any amount past the goal going to support the mission of the Isla Vista Tenants Union.

The breakdown is as follows

-1800 for the current balance charged to me for overflow housing (originally 2700)

-1000/month rent for 12 months= 12,000

-1200 left over for security deposit, first/last month's rent, any other incidentals

for a total of $15,000.

Winter quarter begins on January 3rd.

I would appreciate any amount you could contribute. It will help me and others get the much needed peace of mind, ample time, and undivided attention to our studies that is warranted but impossible to do.

UC Santa Barbara is a world class institution with an amazing geography program that I am blessed to be a part of, and I don't want something as fundamental as housing to hold me back from finishing school and earning my degree. I want to return to Fresno and get my masters in Public Health from Fresno State, and do research on the health effects of inadequate housing and stress due to low income, using what I am currently learning in my geographic information systems class to contribute to my research. Please help me.

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