Every Friday morning in the Associated Students of Colorado State University conference room, Lory Student Center visitors can find the weekly adjournment of the Housing Caucus, a legislative body that advocates for students’ basic needs at CSU.

These meetings are open to anyone and everyone, offering an open and welcoming space for students and faculty to voice their concerns and engage in constructive conversations about affordable housing, food security, accessible transportation and more.

The Housing Caucus was formed during the 2023 fall semester by Speaker of the Senate Hayden Taylor and former caucus Chair Faraaz Bukhari. Senator Lauren Davis took over after Bukhari graduated last spring. Davis, who sits on the ASCSU senate as a representative for the Housing Caucus and the Survivor Advocacy and Feminist Education Center, explained how the caucus operates within and outside of ASCSU.

“What’s cool about the Housing Caucus is that we are really trying to reach out to the broader CSU community,” Davis said. “We are a part of ASCSU and run through ASCSU, but we distance ourselves from the whole thing because we want it to be really accessible for students and be a space where they can come in and air their concerns in a place that has resources for them.”

Housing Caucus meetings offer students a space to ask questions and speak on their concerns surrounding student housing and food security at CSU. Jorja Whyte, the director of basic needs for ASCSU, said the meetings address students’ needs without judgment.

“You are valued because you are a student that lives on campus, and that’s why we’re trying to support you.” -Valeria Valles Castañeda, Rams Against Hunger representative

“Giving students a place to feel seen and heard in the issues that they’re experiencing is the first step to actually creating change,” Whyte said. “A lot of these issues with housing and food security also come with so much stigma associated with them. I think it’s really hard for students to talk about what’s happening and what they’re experiencing. (Housing Caucus) serves to destigmatize that experience.”

The Housing Caucus often collaborates with similar organizations at CSU, including Rams Against Hunger, the basic needs department, the SAFE Center and Off-Campus Life. Valeria Valles Castañeda attends the weekly meetings as a representative for RAH and touched on the value of these collaborations.

“It creates a more collective approach to creating more solutions to the issues that we are facing (while) also bringing that comfortability where people can just come in,” Castañeda said. “You are valued because you are a student that lives on campus, and that’s why we’re trying to support you.”

While the caucus is still fairly new, they have already made strides in their policy work and advocacy efforts. Alongside RAH and the Food Security Advisory Council, the Housing Caucus was a key player in advocating for an increase from two to four meal swipes. Students could donate these extra swipes to the Rams Against Hunger Meal Swipe Program. Davis also touched on two of their current projects: the caucus’ affordability report and Prospect Plaza Apartments.

The affordability report, once finalized, will offer a comprehensive overview for students on what it really looks like to live in Fort Collins.

“We compiled data from every survey that we could find for students that asked about what their affordability looked like,” Davis said. “The goal of the report is to just be a comprehensive report of what it actually looks like to live in Fort Collins: to rent, to eat, to transport yourself, to do anything you need to do to be a human and how expensive it really is.”

Prospect Plaza, an off-campus student apartment complex near CSU, is set to be demolished in summer 2025 and eventually rebuilt. Concerns over student displacement and affordability following renovations have been a pivotal point of conversation in the caucus meetings. Castañeda, a Prospect Plaza resident and a member of the LuMin Safe Housing Initiative — a subsidized housing program located in Prospect Plaza — expressed her and the caucus’ desire to put students’ needs first in this complex process.

“We really want to make sure that we try anything and everything that we can to mediate the situation and make sure that our students are being housed because that is the number one priority,” Castañeda said. 

While the Housing Caucus has already started influencing policy at CSU, their efforts in addressing prominent issues in affordable housing and food security have been of equal value.

“I feel like even the things that we haven’t felt successful in are just us planting the seed and hoping sometime later in the future that things will happen,” Castañeda said. “We have ideas. If they don’t work, let’s move around it. The need will still be there, and we want to make sure we are addressing it in whatever creative way that we can.”

Reach Claire VanDeventer at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.