I agree that it’s a pain that you wait until April for the lottery and then are left scrambling. But the situation at UCSC seemed better this year if you stayed in your college and found 5 others from your college to share with so you could use the best lottery time from all those 6 people. In previous years the priority groups took most of the housing so you had to find someone in that group to share with.
If you didn’t find a group or wanted to move to another college then it’s much tougher. But we were told that at most colleges there are always a few spaces in the freshman triples if you are prepared to live there again. Of course that means taking the even bigger risk of waiting until September.
Living off campus it seems unlikely that $1500 per month will be enough. I’d expect to pay more like $1800 per month in Santa Cruz. Or take a car and commute from outlying areas. Did they solve the parking issue that sophomores weren’t allowed parking permits in previous years?