Plans to build affordable housing for 400 community college students at Cerritos College are all drawn up, featuring communal kitchens and spaces where tutors and mental health specialists can visit students. The expected per-person rent for a four-bedroom, two-bedroom or studio unit? About $717 a month.
Colleges and universities across the state’s three systems submitted proposals in hopes of receiving grants for student housing through the 2023-24 budget. Thirty projects — including 21 from community colleges — totalingAnd in the scramble for state funding, community colleges have had to withstand doubts over whether they are prepared to operate student housing.
“In all honesty, a lot of the community college projects, they’re not ready for prime time,” said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty duringon education finance. “If you look at the staging of the money, we should focus on the projects that are most shovel ready. Now, those seem to be most of the UC and CSU projects.”
Before 2019, less than a dozen of the state’s 116 community colleges offered student housing. Most were in rural communities and housed fewer than 200 students. Fierro said he does not think it is fair to have community colleges vie for state dollars with UC and CSU. Affordable housing is also direly needed in the UC and CSU systems — and anacross all three systems lack stable places to sleep, according to surveys.
Student Lupe Trinidad, left, brings a grocery order to student Maryleen Ramos at the Falcon’s Nest, a hub for resources including free food and clothing, at Cerritos College.