Community college housing on the horizon

New ordinance permits the construction of low-income student dwellings at California community colleges.

By: Rosemary Villalonga and Gabriel Gomez, Staff Writers

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bill AB 648 on Oct. 7, 2025, which allows LACCD campuses to provide student, staff and faculty housing in an attempt to address housing insecurity among the college community. Community college districts will be able to begin construction on property that they own or lease with the plan to create student housing efficiently through the support of sponsors and state grants. 

The bill is set to come into effect on the first day of the new year.

As the bill reads: “This bill would provide that a community college district is not required to comply with the zoning ordinances of a city, county, or city and county, for a university housing development project constructed on property owned or leased by a community college district… The bill would require the community college district to ensure that a portion of the units of the project are made available at affordable rents to extremely low income faculty and staff and lower income faculty and staff.” 

The Real College California Institute conducted a survey in 2023 to assess the basic needs of students in the community college districts throughout the state, finding that 58 percent of participants reported being housing insecure and 24 percent being homeless (defined as not having a permanent or reliable residence). 

“Wages are trying to keep up, but they’re not, they’re really not,” said Kenny Adkins, a marketing student. “Rent is going to take over like your whole paycheck basically for the month, so it’s really not worth it unless you’re really wanting to struggle. It's just not worth it for anybody.”

How is it possible that residents of the richest state in the Union could be experiencing such high levels of housing insecurity? 

“Renters in Los Angeles County need to earn $49.58 per hour – 2.9 times the City of Los Angeles minimum wage – to afford the average monthly asking rent of $2,578,” reported the California Housing Partnership earlier this year. 

An unmarried worker with no tax deductibles who earns $20 an hour — a few dollars above the minimum wage, as it were — would have to work 40 hours a week to bring home $2,652 after taxes, barely the cost of rent alone. He would have a remaining $18.50 for his other expenses. 

“Lord it's a bourgeois town… I’ve got the bourgeois blues, I’m gonna spread the news all around,” sang Leadbelly, whose woes are still felt 90 years later.  

Santa Monica College has submitted a budget request for the building of these facilities. They plan on being able to house nearly 300 low-income students. The total capital required for constructing this housing facility will be approximately $70 million. East Los Angeles College has been allocated $10 million  for a long-term lease on housing already available on the campus of CSULA. 

“I know the minimum wage is a lot higher compared to other states, especially in fast food but I don’t think it's enough to live...” said Faith Oliveros, a nursing student at Valley.  “I do full-time at work and I also do full-time at school, and even with full-time I don’t think I could survive living on my own.”