Actually, many apartments near prestigious UC schools (Berkeley, UCLA) are priced to be affordable for two students per bedroom. This is how some undergraduate students have been renting for decades, from my own personal observations. A $7200/month 3 bedroom can house 6 students in bunk beds. So at $1200/month per student, this is more than affordable for their upper middle class parents.
Again, these prices have quadrupled in real dollars in only 25 years. Any notion that this is normal for a college town is incorrect.
The solution should be for the UC Regents to build more on-campus dormitories, reduce enrollment at overcrowded campuses, and build or expand campuses in areas with fewer geographical constraints and lower housing costs. Costs are much lower around UC Riverside and UC Merced. There ought to be another campus in Fresno or Bakersfield.