The challenge is that not just anyone can live in it... only faculty and staff. There's a 50 year max term and even widows get booted out after their spouses pass. You really don't own the house/land... just the right to live there and re-sell it.
For on-campus housing, widows/widowers can remain for life. [1] There are other off-campus housing programs that only give 10 years after the death of the qualifying spouse.
That's good news. There was a lot of drama in the late 90s when I lived there, because a widow was being kicked out of a house on Santa Ynez. I'd guess that was on-campus and maybe the reason for a change.
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