And $315 to get your parking sticker?
It’s not like Humboldt is Manhattan. Parking should be free or like 5 bucks to cover the sticker cost.
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The administration took this action to spare themselves the embarrassment of the public knowing they don’t provide affordable housing options to their students. Now they’re “memories” [sing it in Barbra’s voice] for a wider audience.
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It’s sad to see that this seems to be in line with policies being rolled out across the state for all residents living in vehicles. I’ve watched a few videos about seniors in California being targeted in the same way:
Officials in some municipalities/states push back against affordable housing at the same time they gut the only safety nets available to those who are struggling financially. Mobile home parks, RV campgrounds, rest areas, and parking/camping have all been targets for new regulations, higher costs/fees/fines, and greater enforcement.
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I’ve met a number of people who lived out of their cars or RVs over the years. All of them told me that the cops take a special sadistic delight in making them move on – especially in the middle of the night.
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… the original standard of affordability was 25%
https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Sec1.03_Historical-Overview_2015.pdf
Now it’s often quoted as “one third”
I’m sure “half” is coming soon 
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A very America-centric investigation of the current peculiarities of the American housing market:
TL;DW: the existence of 30-year fixed rate mortgages, a feature not often found in other housing markets, has given rise to a situation where people who already paying mortgages are heavily disincentivized from moving house, causing a situation where demand for housing has dropped precipitously. Prices remain high as all these people hanging on to their current homes are reluctant to put theirs on the market, lowering supply. This has knock on effects on the economy.
I’m not sure if I buy this, since looking at Canada, a place which doesn’t really have fixed mortgages, we have similar issues of stubbornly high housing prices in the wake of limited demand due to high inflation as well as a problem of really bad problems that come with refinancing into higher interest rates. One would think that a combination of people defaulting on loans and higher rates would drive prices down, but in Canada, this has lead to mortgages with infinite time horizons (more or less) and a suspicious increase in the rate of housing projects getting destroyed by fire (anecdotally, of course… no ones really reporting on this aside from the fact that “Fire at new housing development” seems to be appearing more frequently of late… I wonder if this is worth someone doing a weeks long analysis of). A short primer on the housing crisis in Canada: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8Y0SY6OoKV8
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Wall Street-backed landlord buys 264 Las Vegas homes in $98M deal - even though Sin City has nation’s worst housing shortage - as study shows corporate sharks could own FORTY percent of all US homes by 2030
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Hopefully, this legislation will pass 
:
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My daughter and I wrote a Weird Al-style parody of The Beastie Boys’ song Sabotage, except it’s Arbitrage. The lyrics describe buying things and reselling them for a profit without using them or adding value…
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Hopefully that helps, but it really needs to be accompanied with legislation that ends financial incentives for people and corporations to hang on to vacant dwellings (or really any vacant buildings).
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The world needs to see this, bonus internet points for a live performance.
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That NPR article that you linked is very upbeat and focuses much on Minneapolis ending single-family zoning—however, Minneapolis’ 2040 Comprehensive Plan (which ended single-family zoning throughout the city) was thrown out by a judge. It’s all up in the air at this point…
A bit from that NPR link:
One city has been at the forefront of these conversations: Minneapolis.
That’s because Minneapolis was ahead of the pack as it made a series of changes to its zoning rules in recent years: allowing more density downtown and along transit corridors, getting rid of parking requirements, permitting construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which are secondary dwellings on the same lot.
And one change in particular made national news: The city ended single-family zoning, allowing two- and three-unit homes to be built in every neighborhood.
However…
^ FEBRUARY 18, 2024 (gift link)
Months after a judge threw out Minneapolis’ 2040 Comprehensive Plan — prompting in-progress housing projects to grind to a halt — local developers are still hoping that the plan that made Minneapolis the first American city to end single-family zoning can be reinstated, and their projects resurrected.
One way that could happen? The city could comply with court orders and conduct an environmental study of the 2040 Plan. But though they have few other options, Minneapolis leaders have little interest in going that route.
And
^ NOVEMBER 5, 2023 (gift link)
Minneapolis has put aside its 2040 Comprehensive Plan after a judge declined to delay an earlier order blocking its implementation.
The city has now updated its website with an announcement that until further notice, it would return to 2030 land use ordinances. Those guidelines, which reinstate single-family zoning and roll back requirements that a certain proportion of new units be affordable, inject uncertainty into dozens of ongoing projects.
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We need more solutions at the state level to combat this:
Changes are coming to HUD at the federal level:
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