Emily Garcia stands in front of her tiny home at Lotus Living in El Centro on Jan. 22, 2023. The homes were built for housing-insecure students at nearby Imperial Valley College. Photo by Ariana Drehsler for CalMattersTwo California community colleges built housing in the last couple of years, with very different approaches.
“It’s actually a pretty nice environment with a lot of my peers, and just people the same age, going to the same classes,” McFarland said. Twelve of the state’s community colleges already provide housing; most are in rural areas, and built dorms in the 1960s to serve students who couldn’t easily commute to class.
The Harbour, a student housing complex at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, seen from the campus community garden on Jan. 27, 2023. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters While some residents, like McFarland, consider the rents at The Harbour affordable when considering the state’s high cost of living, others disagreed.
Kammerman said the college conducts annual price assessments to ensure that units rent at or below market rates, and about 10% of residents receive college stipends of $400-600 per month to help with the expense.