In July, Cal State LA was presented with the results of an audit of their on-campus housing approved by the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees (BOT) in May 2024.
The audit found that Housing and Residential Life (HRL) compliance with CSU housing policies and procedures was inadequate and that “improvement was needed” in all HRL’s management areas.
“Specifically, we found that HRL has incurred operating losses in the past four years and will be depleting its reserves by the end of this fiscal year,” the audit said. “We also identified weaknesses in physical access to housing facilities, including the lack of a list of system users for the digital key system, unsecured key storage, and lack of key inventories. Additionally, HRL did not have a formal process to monitor guest visitation, and the management of visitor housing and summer conference services did not consistently follow processes.”
The audit was initiated by the CSU Audit and Advisory Services as a part of the fiscal year 2024-2025 audit plan and was selected through “an annual audit planning process,” according to CSU spokesperson Kelly Hazel.
Prior to the audit, HRL has gone through multiple leaders over the last several years and was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not directly point to or blame these issues as a reason for the audits findings of malpractice and non-compliance with CSU policies.
“At Cal State LA Housing, we are committed to continuously improving the residential experience so that students feel supported, connected, and set up for success,” Housing and Residential Life Director Luis Roldan said in an emailed statement. “We are actively listening to feedback, strengthening programs, and enhancing services to ensure our residents have the best possible environment to learn and grow.”
The audit found that there were issues in the governance, residency administration, housing operations, fiscal administration, contract management, facilities maintenance, safety and information security in March 2025 when the fieldwork was conducted on-campus.
“Because its apartment complexes are aging, HRL has also been forced to pay for unanticipated emergency repairs and planned maintenance projects that have challenged its budget,” the audit said. “These repairs were partially due to HRL not prioritizing deferred maintenance projects during the COVID-19 recovery. There are also ongoing issues with the water system and fan coil breaks at the newer South Village residence hall,” according to both the audit and a University Times report from spring 2025.
The CSU will continually follow up with Cal State LA “on the implementation of corrective actions outlined in the response and determine whether additional action is required,” according to the audit document from the CSU Chancellor’s office.
Housing has been a challenge for the CSU system even as campuses have added over 17,000 student beds and $2 billion in housing investments across the entire system since 2014.
But, despite that investment on average only 13% of students across the entire 23 school system are housed on campus, according to the latest available CSU housing data.
In addition to the audit, the HRL is set to be completely depleted of all funds and its reserves by September 30, and will be $387,567 in debt. Since 2023, HRL has lost over $5.6 million and were projected to lose an additional $3.7 million this fiscal year, according to the audit.
In the likely case that HRL depletes its reserves, they would rely on funding from the CSU or Cal State LA to stabilize the situation, according to Roldan.
As a part of one of the corrections noted in the final report, the audit requires that HRL has a documented and clear plan that lays out how the agency will recover from this current budget deficit. This roadmap should be internally completed by Sept. 12, but it is not clear when the measures laid out in the plan would take effect.
At CSULA a total of 8% of the student body are living in on-campus housing which has an operational capacity of 2,576 beds across three separate areas including South Village, University Apartments, and the Golden Eagle Apartments.
However, the percentage of students living at the school varies widely by campus.
At Cal State LA, beyond the 1,500 bed increase in 2021 after the opening of the South Village, there are currently no plans to add additional capacity in the near future.
In one of the findings of the audit, HRL had failed to keep fully secure keys that have direct access to dorms and private areas. Physical records were also kept in non-secure locations and did not keep a full list of who was able to access housing facilities. The audit did not note any security breaches, or criminal activity in the dorms or any facilities managed by HRL.
While documents and keys were not kept secure by HRL there was also no “established process in place to approve, track, and monitor guests in student housing.”
In another finding, many of the residential aids, and other staff had failed to do all the required online trainings, including several that involve Clery Act reporting, Title IX tracking and discrimination prevention. According to the audit, HRL and all involved personnel will be caught up and up to date with all relevant trainings by early October 2025.
Because of these issues, Cal State LA has one of the lowest on-campus housing rates in the CSU system, with a 69% occupancy rate last fall. The lowest is 58% at CSU East Bay, according to a July 2025 CSU Statewide Housing Plan Report.
In spring 2025 about 65% of the dorms were occupied, but this fall the occupancy rate is 72%, with 1,522 students housed, according to data provided by Roldan.
However, the goal for HRL and the university is that a minimum of 90% of student housing is occupied, but since the pandemic it has been well below the stated goal, according to the audit.
While HRL did not directly comment on why a percentage of the dorms remain unused, they did point to shifting enrollment rates across the CSU system and at Cal State LA as one of main reasons for not reaching their occupancy rate goals.
Across the CSU enrollment increased by 4,000 students this semester compared to fall 2024, according to an Edsource report. The numbers for each individual CSU is not yet publicly available.
However, HRL is taking this time of lower occupancy rates on-campus “as an opportunity to highlight the strong academic and community benefits of living on campus and are actively working to grow our residential community,” according to Roldan.
HRL pointed towards the availability of food to those living on campus as a priority to food security while in school.
“To ensure that no resident is left without a meal,” Roldan said. “We want to increase food security and provide a positive service to our community.”
As a part of the findings in the audit, it was noted that HRL were continually increasing food plan costs since 2023 with documented approval from the school president, but were not retaining those records. HRL is now seeking approval for additional meal plan hikes that took effect in academic year 2025-2026, the audit said.
The cost for housing without any financial aid differs depending on where students decide to live. The lowest price per year is $9,384 for a triple room in the South Village, which opened in 2021. The HRL did not have a cost breakdown for the rooms that are split between 4 and 8 students posted to their website.
These costs for rooms do not include the mandatory meal plan which is an additional $5,936 per year for unlimited meals across all on-campus housing. The cheapest meal plan is $1,310 for 50 swipes, according to the HRL Cal State LA website. It is up to each individual CSU on whether or not to implement mandatory meal plans, according to Hazel.
Students, in addition to the meal plans, are able to cook in their dorm rooms in the Golden Eagles Apartments and University, and have access to a communal kitchen in the South Village for their use, according to Cal State LA spokesperson Erik Hollins.
The audit also found that HRL had overcharged a disabled student by $500 in spring 2025 by charging them for the “incorrect room type.” There have been several instances of other amounts incorrectly charged over the years, but the amounts never exceeded $75. Hollins confirmed that the repayments had been made to students identified by the university and the audit process.
According to the audit, each of the areas that were flagged as not being in compliance with CSU policy would be corrected by no later than January 2026 by HRL. However, Roldan added that some tasks had already been completed as of September 2025, and that any remaining issues would be corrected by early 2026.
