Merced College exchange students denounce living conditions in host homes

Far from her family in Japan, a Merced College student found her new “host mom” feeding her food that was moldy and expired; another pair say their host family spied on them through security cameras; and two other women say their host mother left on a weekend trip that lasted nearly a month, leaving them without the groceries covered by their monthly fee, according to complaints filed by six students.

The complaints filed this year by the Japanese students have brought no remedy from YES International, the San Diego-based service that matches Merced College students with local families, nor from the college itself.

“This problem is because of YES, and they have the responsibility to take care of the students,” student Haruka Yamamoto said. “It is a total waste of money and time.”

Representatives of YES in San Diego did not respond to the Sun-Star’s requests for comment. The company’s homestay coordinator for Merced College, Hayato Saito, dismissed the women’s complaints as unfounded.

YES, or Your English Services, works with international students to help them find housing in private homes in Merced and elsewhere. Of the 110 international students enrolled at Merced College, about 20 contract with YES.

Students who spoke with the Sun-Star said they paid $750 each month for room and board, which was supposed to cover two meals per day during the school week and three meals a day on weekends.

The six students from Japan said they began having problems with their host families soon after they moved in late last summer before school started. For some, the stay was so bad they moved out after only a couple of months.

Students said their complaints to Saito brought no relief, and their requests for refunds of their monthly fees were ignored.

“He did not do anything,” said Yamamoto, who says she and her roommate were abandoned by their host mother for nearly a month. “I looked for a new house by myself.”

Yukino Kamei said her host family cooked moldy food and gave her food, including fruit, even though she’d told them she is allergic to it.

Erina Yano and Yurika Kawasaki said their host mom didn’t keep much food in the refrigerator, and the food there was was moldy and expired. Yano moved out in January. Kawasaki still lives with the family, saying that the YES program had been unwilling to help her find new housing and she was too discouraged to relocate on her own.

Yano and Kawasaki said that when they were home alone, their host mom watched them through security cameras and used the surveillance to ask them for favors such as housekeeping and feeding the family’s pets. One message from the host mother shared with the Sun-Star said, “I’ve been looking today in the camera what they’re doing. It’s all recorded, even audio.”

“I really thought my own privacy has been ... violated, and I actually have never relaxed at home,” Kawasaki said.

The host mom, who lives in north Merced, did not return messages left by the Sun-Star requesting comment.

A fellow student who formerly found housing through YES, 21-year-old Izumi Ota decided to help her friends by taking the matter before the Merced College board of trustees during their April meeting in Los Banos.

“We call on the board to investigate and ensure that all international students have a suitable support system in place and are able to pursue their educational goals,” she told the board.

During the May meeting, Susan Walsh, the college’s interim president, said the college is responsible only for the students’ education and could not interfere with the homestay program.

Last week, Ota approached the board again, speaking during the public comment period of their meeting.

Board members did not respond.

Walsh said the college has no authority over students’ homestay experiences. “In the event something unpleasant happens at their (students’) homestay, we notify YES and, if it’s actual criminal activity, they have the ability and the authority to contact local law enforcement,” she said during the regular meeting last week.

In 2013, two Japanese students at Merced College reported they were raped by the man who owned the home where they lived. Juan J. Rocha, now 58, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2014 for raping the two students, who were 18 and 20 at the time.

Host families commonly are connected to YES through a referral system, according to Saito. YES screens the families and visits their homes before they are assigned to students. He said any complaints from students are investigated by staff “immediately.”

Chris Vitelli, Merced College’s vice president for student services, said he has received no direct complaints about YES or local host families. He said that Ota also expressed no problems with her experience with YES.

Vitelli said he sent an email to international students asking them to contact him with any issues. He also is encouraging students to complete the school’s survey about their experiences.

Walsh said this year’s survey so far has found that more than 75 percent of their international students are satisfied or very satisfied with their YES experiences.

Izumi, however, said that was irrelevant to her friends’ complaints.

“Even if one international student has this problem, that’s a big issue,” she told the Sun-Star.

Anna Takahashi is one of the two women who says their host mother left them without food for four weeks between September and October. The Merced woman had told them she was going to a wedding for a couple of days, but didn’t return for weeks.

“While (the host mom) was not home, my roommate made dinner every day,” Takahashi said. “Of course, we ran out of food.”

The students were unable to contact the woman directly, but received a handful of messages from her. A friend of the woman delivered groceries to the home after the students complained.

The Sun-Star could not reach the woman for comment. There was no public phone number listed for her and a real estate company where she worked said she was no longer employed there.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Merced College exchange students denounce living conditions in host homes."