Senate Select Committee on Select Committee on Community College: The Hub of the Community

Welcome, everyone, to the Select Committee on Community Colleges, the hub of the community. Today, we're having an informational hearing very specifically on leveraging community college housing for a vibrant community. It's a pleasure to welcome you to today's informational hearing.

Now, this Committee was formed with the clear purpose of better understanding and addressing the real, everyday challenges our community college students face. These include access to affordable housing, food and security, childcare, disability accommodations, mental health services, and so many other issues. These challenges are not just academic. They are deeply personal and systemic.

Community colleges are often the first and most accessible step toward a better future for millions of Californians.

Whether it's a single parent looking to build a new career, a recent high school graduate seeking an affordable path to higher education, or a returning student determined to re-enter the workforce, these institutions serve as a cornerstone of hope and transformation.

I would like to thank each of you for being here and for your commitment to advancing the mission of our community colleges, not only as institutions of higher education, but as a vital center of support, opportunity, and equity within our community. I'd like to thank the Senators, the staff and stakeholders for attending this hearing.

We have an incredible set of panelists here today for all of you. Now, our Senators will be coming in and out. If they walk out during your presentation, do not take it personally. There are lots of meetings being held, with—especially with the end of session.

Our goal today is that we are crafting solutions that reflect the diverse needs of our students and that we're empowering community colleges to continue serving as strong, resourceful pillars in the communities they anchor. Particularly, this hearing will be focused on the development of student housing on community college campuses on land owned by community college districts.

Our students are facing—they're facing a housing crisis, from living in their cars to paying high amounts of rent, and we must find a path forward so they can live sustainably. With good living conditions, students have a greater chance of transferring to the university level or entering the workforce.

Housing is a basic human right, and together, we can advocate for affordability, access, and dignity for all of our students. Now, before we begin, we do have some housekeeping to go over. Each of the panels—we have two panels. The first one, we have two speakers and one technical answerer.

And we will give each of the panelists 5 to 7 minutes. Our Chancellor will have up to 10 minutes to present her opening remarks. All panelists will present and we will hold questions until after they have completed. Public comment will be limited to in person.

We will maintain decorum during the hearing, and we will not permit conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the hearing. Any individual who is disruptive may be removed from the room. Now, as the Senators do arrive, some of them will ask to give opening remarks and we will provide that to them during breaks between the speakers.

I'd like to ask our first panelists to come and join us, please. I'm excited, quite frankly, to learn about what some of the community colleges have done to provide housing. You'll see these posters.

I'm very grateful to Valerie, from my office, who thought of the idea not just of showing where all the community colleges are, but then she did the research to find out which of our community colleges already have housing that is operating and who has housing that is in development.

And one of our first panelists is going to tell you how they have everything. And I'm excited about that because he will talk about how, how the initial funding came. We're hoping that we'll have another record year with funding available in our budget to help our community colleges.

It'll be a while before we get there, but we'll hear from him as well. Now, our first speaker, Dr. Sonya Christian, is the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges here for the State of California.

She is a nationally recognized leader and fierce advocate for the life changing role of community colleges in advancing equity, student access, and economic mobility. We're excited to hear from you, Chancellor. Please.

Wonderful. Senator, it's a pleasure to be addressing a Committee that you're chairing and I will not take 10 minutes. You were so eloquent, I could just say ditto and then walk away. But I do have remarks for about five minutes. And Valerie, it's good to see you. Thank you for all your work.

So, I made it a point to be here in person because student housing is that important to our students at the California community colleges. After I offer my remarks, I will be peeling away for another obligation. And Chris Ferguson, our Executive Vice Chancellor for Finance and Strategic Initiatives, will be here to answer questions.

Chris leads our system wide work related to housing and so happy that President Willie Duncan is to my left. He is not only the President of Sierra College, but for years he's been recognized across our system as a leader and a thinker and a problem solver. So, very happy to be with Willie Duncan on the panel.

So, now, for affordable student housing, the topic of the day, before you can thrive in the classroom, before you can show up for labs, before you can meet deadlines set by your instructors, before you can dream big, you need a place to sleep. It's as simple as that. Not in a car, not couch surfing.

A place that is safe, a place that is stable, a place that is yours, that is foundational. Food, shelter, safety, and then, comes learning. At California's community colleges, we serve the full richness of California. We serve veterans, we serve working parents, former foster youth, current foster youth, first generation dreamers, incarcerated—formerly incarcerated Californians.

And too many of them are doing homework in parking lots. That's not equity and that's not access. Affordable housing is not a luxury. It's a basic infrastructure, just like classrooms, labs, and libraries. We must treat it that way. We've made historic progress thanks to your investment and your leadership and the Governor's investments.

These investments are more than buildings. They act as trust in the hopes and futures of our students and the future of California. There are 13 projects that have been completed. It's pretty significant. And 14 more that are being developed. What a time to celebrate as we strive to do more.

Four of these projects are intersegmental in nature, meaning that they are being developed or built in collaboration with our CSUs and our UC partners. The community colleges are known. We are really focused on always collaboration. Nine of the projects are funded locally and the remaining are using state funds.

So, the list, real quickly, we've got the 13 that are completed: Coast, Feather River, Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Napa Valley, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou Sonoma State Center, West Hills, West Kern, that's Staff College, and Columbia College.

And the 14 that are being developed as we speak: Cabrillo, Cerritos, Compton, Imperial Valley, Bakersfield, Kasumnes, Merced, College of the Redwoods, Riverside City, College of San Mateo, Sierra College, College of the Siskiyous, Fresno City College in Ventura. So, we've got our work cut out for us.

The California Community College's Vision 2030 defines access not just as opening the door, but making sure students have the support to walk through that door and to stay. And housing that's affordable housing on campus or near campus is one of those essential supports. It's not optional, it is fundamental.

A quick note on the federal landscape, and I know Senator, you're well aware of it, that the recent cuts to federal safety net programs such as Medicaid and SNAP, we are happy that California takes care of Californians in the safety nets and we must double down on linking students to services for which they are eligible, including our rapid rehousing, homeless and housing insecurity, and other programs that can ensure students are able to focus their time and attention where they belong and that's on their studies.

So, in closing, we see these investments doing so much for our communities. They are actually also an economic development engine because they provide jobs in the construction trades.

They're providing stable—as well as providing stable and affordable housing for students—so we can provide hope for thousands of Californians who seek to better themselves through the dream of higher education. So, we see it as a win, win, win. And Senator Reyes, thank you for your support for all of our communities.

You are one smart woman, and you have, as I call it, a heart of Jupiter, as large as Jupiter. And you have a practical approach to solving problems. So, we thank you deeply for shining a light on this issue.

And at this time, I will discreetly excuse myself and leave you in the capable hands of Chris Ferguson, who has an incredible brain for finance. So, that concludes my remarks. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Chancellor, and thank you for being the leader of our community college system. I know that various community college districts really rely on you and the rest of your team to lead them, especially during these difficult times, both because of what's happening federally and also, at the state level.

So, I thank you so much for your leadership and look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you. I think that deserves a round of applause.

There goes our leader, our fearless leader for our community college system and someone who is always available to answer questions or to be as resourceful as possible to our students in our community college systems. I'd like to welcome Senator Sabrina Cervantes to today's hearing.

And before we go to our next speaker, I'd like to offer her an opportunity to give a few opening remarks.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Honored to be a part of this Select Committee hearing and to hear from our dynamic faculty. Of course, our President, President of all of our universities that we've met with yesterday, our community college systems. But appreciate the work that you all are doing.

I know that there's important work ahead of us that we are committed to, on behalf of all of our students and the constituents that we represent. Thank you for your time here today.

I will tell you, it's wonderful to have a partner in the Inland Empire. And when we fight, we're fighting for it. We fight for all of you. But for the Inland Empire to be able to have a partner, it gives us a little more power, don't you think, as we ask for things for the Inland Empire.

All right. Thank you so much for being with us, Senator. Our next speaker is Willie Duncan, President of Sierra College. Willie Duncan has served as the sixth Superintendent and President of Sierra College since 2011, leading the institution through a period of growth, innovation, and regional collaboration.

Sierra College launched a 20-year Facility Master Plan, which includes exactly what we're talking about here, student housing. And please welcome Willie Duncan. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Senator Reyes. I appreciate you holding this hearing and inviting me to speak. Thank you, Senator Cervantes, for your comments in the beginning. And I would also say thank you to Chancellor Christian for her nice words and for her leadership on this issue.

It doesn't happen without the support of the Chancellor's Office and our Chancellor. You introduced me, so I won't spend much time introducing myself other than to say I've been at Sierra College as its President for 14 years now, which, actually, in the community college world, makes me a Senior Superintendent President.

I am also currently the CEO Board Chair for the California Community Colleges, representing all of the chancellors and presidents at all of our community colleges. And I am the past Chair of the Community College Facilities Coalition and was the Chair of that group when SB 169 was passed.

So, this is an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and I'll give you a little bit of background for me. I was previously at West Kern Community College District, which Chancellor Christian mentioned, has dorms. And so, I have now worked 28 years at Community colleges with dorms.

So, I am very experienced in what it takes to operate a dorm and the value that it brings to the lives of our students. This is something that I think we've seen coming for a long time. People often say to me, community colleges need dorms? Why would you need dorms?

And I think it's a lack of understanding of what our students are dealing with. Who are the students that we serve in the California Community Colleges? And so, the need for dorms is great, and the need for affordable housing for our students is great in our communities. We all know what's going on with housing costs.

So, when we did our master plan early in my tenure as President at Sierra College, one of the things we identified was the need for additional student housing, beyond what we already had on campus. We did a feasibility study to determine whether or not there was demand for a, for a project.

And we found that there was overwhelming demand among our students and among high school students that could be coming to us and community members that could be coming to us in the future.

So, we designed a project that we would build on our campus, and we had a price study done on that project, and we recognized very quickly that it was cost prohibitive for us to build, unless we charged market rate for those dorm rooms. And we did not want to do that.

We felt that it was really important that we look for a way to try to reduce that cost. And so, we started looking for a way. SB 169 made that possible for us.

So, I want to say thank you to you, thank you to the Legislature and all that worked on SB 169 to make that happen, that drove deep affordability for our students. And without this program, we would not be building affordable student housing right now. So, a little bit about our project and some of the key elements.

First, I want to point out that our project is designed to be in the center of our campus. This is a key—we are viewing this as a key component of our student success and equity efforts as Sierra College. It sits next to our cafeteria and student union and next to our library and learning resource center.

And that is intentional design so that the students will be—that live in our dorms and our student housing—will be at the core of our campus and will be at the center of all things that are happening. We are linking our affordable student housing project to all of our support programs, some of which I'll mention.

Our UMOJA program, which is, by the way, the largest in the State of California at Sierra College, our Puente Program, our Wanadi Program that serves our native students, our Guardian Scholars Program that serves former foster youth, our Veterans Program. We have a veteran's center that's very active and is connected to this.

And then of course, our basic needs center, which sits in proximity to our new dorms and will be accessible to all of our students living in student housing. Our project is three stories with three wings, 354 beds. So, really a game changer for Sierra College and for our students and for our community.

We are almost done with construction. It's within a month, it'll be complete. They're just like fine tuning the last few things. And then, we will have our first students moving in for the spring semester this year. So, we're very excited about that.

Some of the things we've done, we've hired a dean of student life that's outside of that dorm project. It'll serve all students. But we did that with the intention of building student life on campus that'll support the students that are living in our affordable student housing.

Our rents are going to be 55% of the maximum allowable under SB 169 calculations. So, I won't get into the details of those calculations. I'm sure you know those much better than I, but we went much further than what the legislation required and reduced those because we really wanted it to be affordable for our students.

I think our students are going to pay less than I paid living in dorms when I went to college many, many years ago. We've also partnered with our foundation, which I think, uniquely, to create an endow a bed program.

And what we have said along those lines is even though these rooms are affordable for students, if you have nothing, you can afford nothing, right? And so, there are a number of students that are going to need even more support than an affordable room can provide. So, our foundation, along with our community, has endowed beds.

We have eight beds endowed so far. We have a goal of 10 that we originally set, but we just talked about trying to up that to 25 over the next five years. Each bed is going to allow a student to live rent free in those dorms and those students will be identified by need.

And that exists for the life of the building because it's an endowment. Several beds are also going to be held for short term use. Right now, our foundation partners with our basic needs center.

And if we hear that a student is living in their car or they are—all of a sudden find themselves unhoused—and it happens during the semester, typically on a Friday, we'll learn from a faculty member or a support staff member that an individual that's in their class or that they are working with is, is living in their car right now and just lost their housing.

We, right now, put them in hotels. We have plant—we have agreements with hotels in our community, and our foundation pays for that, and we place them there until we can get them in to our basic needs center, assess their need, and help them find permanent housing.

Well, now we're going to have dorm rooms that are held for that purpose for those students. Just a few more comments here.

So, just a few thoughts for the future as we open up our new facility and some things that maybe to mention to you as you are thinking about how to support colleges in the growth of student housing.

One of the issues that we've run up against, and I will admit, I'm torn on this issue, is the issue that students, in order, there's a 12-unit requirement for them to live in the dorms under the legislation.

I understand the logic for that and that's why I say I'm torn on this issue, because what we know is full time students have a much higher chance of success and getting to their degree and to their goal, but what I also know is many of our disadvantaged students can't afford to work—to come to school full time.

They are raising kids, they have multiple jobs, they're doing all those kinds of things in life that make it hard for them to be full time. And a full 60% of our students are part time right now at Sierra College. And I believe that exists across the system.

So, there is something needed to support students that are part time students with their housing. I'll also say that our feasibility showed, and I think the data would show, that there is a need for family student housing.

We did—we could not work that into this particular project for us just because of the trying to have little kids living, you know, in a student housing project, that was difficult. But we definitely see that need and we're actually working creatively to try to fill that in the future.

But I think that's something for us to look at out into the future. And I'll say, while we serve traditional young, you know, fresh out of high school students, about 60% of our students are over 25 years old, also. So, we serve our population. And I'm sure that's consistent across the state.

One other thing to mention is, and I know you're well aware of this, is just the pure timing and the economy and the way things went. This program got authorized, dollars got allocated, and then we experienced really unprecedented inflation in construction costs and across our system and all of our projects have been impacted by that.

Sierra's project alone has about a 25% increase in cost from when we first designed the project. So, any assistance that can be provided along those lines would be of great help.

And then, if resources are available in the future, the last thing I would mention is that we can always use help with operational costs because of the affordable nature of these projects and the way we drove these costs down. These are tight budgets to operate our student housing.

And I can see the need in the future for assistance in helping to operate them and really add on all the support and services that are going to be needed. We're going to make it work right now. It fits.

And so, I'm not telling you that this is an emergent need, but I am telling you that it's something that we are paying attention to and could need some help in the future. And the last thing I'll say before I end is I would invite you all to come to our grand opening in December.

I will make sure you get personal invitations from me. It is close, just up the road, and we have not set the date yet. We are working on a few dates, but we are checking people's calendars to make sure folks can make it, and once we finalize that, I'll make sure you get that invitation.

And we'd love to see you see the fruits of your work right in action at Sierra College. Thank you very much for inviting me.

Thank you so much. Honestly, it's so exciting to hear about projects that have been completed, students that are being served, and new projects coming up, the families, that's something that I've heard from many of our other community colleges, that's something that they know they need to work on.

And before we continue, I would like to give an opportunity to the Chair of our Education Committee, Sasha Renee Perez, to give some opening remarks.

Thank you, Senator Gomez Reyes. And I also want to acknowledge all of the Latinas that we have here today. This is a Select Committee on Latinas, as well as Senator Arreguin, but really excited to be here and want to thank Senator Eloise Gomez Reyes for putting together this Select Committee on this conversation.

You know, we know that so many of our community college students across the system need access to housing. And unfortunately, our state's housing crisis has had a direct impact on students' ability to attend college. And oftentimes, it impacts their decision as to whether or not they even continue in community college.

They're having to make that hard decision between paying for tuition, books, you know, food, or rent. And that is not a decision that any student and, you know, should feel like they're being forced to make.

And so, it's been really incredible to watch so many of our districts across the state, you know, step up to try to address this gap in really unique ways.

You know, I've seen districts within, you know, the San Gabriel Valley look to partnerships with nonprofit organizations, you know, other districts looking at a new way that they can go about building housing. They've even partnered—I see Los Angeles Community College District in the audience.

They've partnered with legislators, you know, to introduce streamlining bills that would allow them to easily build new housing on college campuses. This is the way that, you know, we need to start looking at this issue.

I think for many years, you know, we've just looked at the UC and the CSUs as being the only institutions that are able to offer housing. But I think as we've began to grow our understanding of this issue, we've realized that community college students don't just need housing.

They, in many ways, need it more than UC students and CSU students do because they're oftentimes more low income, they are oftentimes student parents, and they are oftentimes just priced out of the housing market. So, they're having to travel very long distances just to get to school.

And student housing is on often a game changer for them and determines whether or not they continue in the community college system. So, you know, again, just want to thank Senator Eloise Gomez Reyes, you know, and all of her leadership, you know, for putting together the Select Committee.

It's a very important discussion and I think more than anything, the value of us talking about this issues is allowing for our districts to partner together and share information with one another, best practices, how can we go about further pursuing having student housing at every community college campus?

What are innovative things that other districts are doing, small and large? And through that information sharing, I really think that we can start making a meaningful impact on this space. So, you know, excited to continue our conversation today day and to see the real impact that we can have for community college students across the state. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to invite Senator Jesse Arreguin to provide some opening remarks.

I'm not a member of the Select Committee, but I'm a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Housing and I want to thank the Chair for inviting me to participate today. I agree with the comments of my colleague, Senator Perez.

I think the need for affordable student housing is particularly more important for our community college students, many of whom are supporting families, they're working simultaneously while they're studying. And I want to just lift up all the work that's being done on campuses throughout the state.

But I know that there are some systemic barriers that we have to address, such as CSUs and UCs have an exemption under the state constitution from local zoning laws, whereas community colleges have to abide by all local zoning laws.

There is a bill, I think AB 648 by Assemblymember Zbur, that would provide similar, similar exemption for community colleges who are developing projects on their land.

And so, the more we can look at how we can streamline the permitting process to get these projects built, while we're looking at how we can expand funding, as part of the conversations we're having around the state housing bond. I think will enable more projects to happen in California, which is so essential.

So, I want to thank the Chair for her leadership and inviting members of some of the other policy committees to join this important discussion today.

Thank you so much, Senator. Our majority leader has joined us, Senator Lena Gonzalez, if she'll provide some opening remarks as well.

Thank you. I think what's been said I absolutely concur with as well. And I actually was that community college student. I went to Saddleback Community College and IVC, which I toggled between as a young mom. My kid's now 24 and a half years old and it's really exciting to see him now go back to college.

He's taken a little bit, but nonetheless, I have had that lived experience, so I absolutely understand the need. I had to live back home with my parents at that time. And not many students in California get to do that. What a luxury it was and privilege for me to be able to do that.

But I see so many community college students really striving hard and I want them to have the opportunities of more plentiful affordable housing to feel like they are wrapped around with support as they move themselves on to a CSU or UC or just get their AA and get into a trade or what have you, like, whatever journey they decide.

And so, I'm really appreciative of the Senators for bringing this forward and really highlighting the absolute grandiose need that we have. And I'm thankful for Long Beach City College and ELAC in my district for doing the good work too. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Maria Elena Durazo, would you like to offer some comments?

Yes. Thank you for letting me butt in here. But I really appreciate Madam Chair, Madam Chair, for this, for what you're doing. I really appreciate that you're putting the focus on this, on housing and community colleges. So, so needed. And just a couple of examples.

In 2021, I sponsored—I authored—Senate Bill 330 to be able to address this issue of housing, especially low-income families. Because in Los Angeles Community Colleges, 55% of the students were experiencing housing insecurity. 55%.

And so, this Bill was about either using unused real property or facilities that had become too financially burdensome to operate and repurpose some buildings and property into affordable housing. So, that was a really important step. I hope that it's taken advantage of for the years that are left of this 10 bill pilot.

And I also want to add to what Senator Arreguin mentioned of AB 648. As Chair of the Local Government Committee, we approved this Bill that allows community colleges to build housing on their land, even if the city or county don't allow housing. And that's I think a bold step that's being taken that's needed to unlock housing.

And we added onto that additional affordability requirements. Senator Arreguin. We added that to the Bill together to make sure that the benefits of the Bill go to those that need it the most. So, these are great examples. I'm really glad to hear about all the work that's being done.

And again, thank you, Madam Chair, for putting the focus where it needs to be.

Thank you so much. Senator Bob Archuleta, would you like to offer some opening remarks?

Well, I will tell you, first off, I would like to welcome you back.

Thank you.

And you are such a blessing to all of us.

And I hope that we take your perseverance, your dedication, and to meet every challenge that you had, that instill upon us that we can turn help the young men and women in our community colleges. And I think this is what it's about.

And if you look up here, ladies and gentlemen, you see a diversity that is California, but that diversity is through education.

And I would like to say that I have to point out, just for the record, that I have five grown children and my oldest son out of USC, a daughter out of Pepperdine, a daughter out of Chapman, and two sons out of West Point. So, that means that we, up here, believe in education.

And the foundation starts sometimes in our junior colleges, community colleges, but we find that so many don't have a place to stay because when they're 18, they're thrown out of the house. They're out there trying to find a new home. And that community college just might be that new home.

But we have to protect them and give them the opportunity to find the dignity of having a place called home. And it just might be the community college.

So, I'm hopefully that this Subcommittee—Select Committee—will find the ways that we can enhance our financing and enhance what we're trying to do to educate our young men and women here in California. So, with that, Madam Chair, I welcome you once again and thank you.

Thank you so much, Senator. It's so good to have all of you with us. It is an important topic. We've heard from our State Chancellor, we've heard from someone who has been very successful in bringing those—that housing—to his district, Willie Duncan, President of Sierra College.

You may not have heard all of the presentations, but if you have some questions, I welcome questions at this time to the first panel.

If I may, Madam Chair?

Thank you. So, I certainly appreciate your time here today and sharing the innovative work that you all are doing. I also want to echo and give a shout out to my own chancellor, Chancellor Isak, who has also created very innovative opportunities for our region, especially with the new housing project that we have currently underway at UC Riverside.

Yes.

And since it's a joint housing project with our community college and our UC, which is the first in the state. And so, we know that community colleges already serve as a workforce pipeline, transfer institution, and lifelong learning centers.

And so, expanding housing certainly makes them true anchors of stability in our regions. And so, I'd like to know, you know, how can campuses ensure that new housing developments also support, as you stated briefly, nontraditional students? So, we're talking about student parents, working students. If you could just elaborate more on that, please.

Yeah, absolutely. So, that's a key component for us, and that's what we've worked into our student housing project.

And I think by tying it to all of our support programs, as I mentioned in my comments, we're ensuring that those students are being notified of the opportunities as we recruit into those programs in our high schools and out in our community. We're making affordable student housing a key component of that conversation.

So, those students are learning about that opportunity and can select to come into our dorms and our student housing. And so, it, for me, it, that's like the core of exactly what we're trying to do. The first look is income. And so, students have to qualify and be low income in order to come in.

And the first look at it. And so, that does ensure that at least those students that have the most need are getting the first opportunity to be moved into student housing.

Any other questions coming to mind? I will add. Zero, yes, thank you, Madam Chair.

I guess one question, sort of building on my comments around the intersection of local zoning and projects, was it a barrier in terms of what you're doing? And then, moreover, could you maybe elaborate a little bit about how you're able to braid the funding to help get your project built?

Yeah, absolutely. So, for us, it was not a barrier because we chose to do it in the center of our campus. And so, we did not have those issues. Although I will tell you, part of identifying the land in the center of campus was so that we didn't have those issues because that might have become problematic.

So, I'm supportive of the direction that you're going there. And Chris may be able to talk more from a system level specifically about that.

Yeah, certainly, that, that zoning issue could be a challenge, but what we do find in many of our campuses is they tend to have sufficient land on their core campus where you can build. You know, in essence, they're land rich, but cash poor in terms of ability to build. So, they have the space.

They just don't have the financing capacity to move forward.

But what I would add also to Senator Cervantes, to your question earlier, also wanted to layer in that as we think about student parents and, you know, family living, it's also some of those auxiliary pieces that we need, that will often be value engineered out if funding is tight, like a playground if you have children.

So, just would echo what Superintendent President Duncan had mentioned around some of the cost escalation. Districts will value engineer to remove some of those components if they face fiscal challenges.

I just have one follow up question, if I may. So, a lot of the projects I think have been either supported through state funding. Are there P3 models? Because speaking from my own experience, I was the Mayor of Berkeley for eight years and very involved in that campus's housing efforts.

And the availability of bond funding for the UC system is rather constrained right now. And so, they've looked towards P3, public-private partnership models as a way to kind of get projects financed. And obviously, there are conditions associated with that, in terms of the affordability of rent levels.

Is that something that some campuses are looking at as another way to try to make projects more financially feasible?

Yeah, absolutely. So, the two that come to mind instantly are the Napa Valley College Project, that was funded with a piece of the General Fund rather than lease revenue bond structure under the Affordable Student Housing Program, is a P3 model, as well as the pending Cabrillo student housing project that is going through the process as well, will also encompass a P3 model as well.

And I do believe that there is a housing project in San Diego Community College District that will likely be constructed outside of the state's program using a P3 model. So, that is one of the methods that districts will look at to try and finance a project.

The other is the state program. The state program is usually most beneficial to students because what it enables is that debt service amount to be removed from the rent cost, thereby substantially lowering the rents that the P3 models, if they're not through our program, can still have a level of debt built into those rents.

As we think about, you know, just intersegmental projects that we're highly supportive of our campuses working with University of California or California State University for joint projects. We have several through the program that are working today. Cabrillo is a joint project with UC Santa Cruz. UC Merced and Merced College have a joint project.

And the project that Senator Cervantes mentioned, at UC Riverside and Riverside Community College District, is a joint project as well, and we're also working as a system with College of the Law of San Francisco right now who will be building additional affordable student housing to try and potentially partner with the districts in San Francisco to enable our students to also have access to some of that affordable student housing.

So, absolutely, we'll partner together. The last one I will mention is there is a partnership between San Diego State University, and I believe it's Imperial Valley College, that is also a joint project between the segments.

I'll just add, I think you're going to hear later in a second panel from San Bernardino Community College District that is looking at a P3 project.

All right, I just got nudged. We're going to hear from Senator Archuleta with the last question of this.

My question, which college or community college is the largest project that you've seen the success, that we can really boast about? And then, how do you share that information with all the rest of the presidents under your umbrella?

Certainly, I would say that all of the presidents in the system are actively monitoring. They are reviewing the financial stability of constructing on their campus, whether that's through private financing, local general obligation bonds, asking their public for assistance.

Other models, you can have revenue bond models, P3 projects, but all of the presidents are watching what the other districts are doing, learning, you know, about opportunities, whether it's for family housing, whether it's for large dorm structures. They're all focused on the same group of students.

That is, how do we serve our neediest students, our underrepresented student populations. You know, that's been the vast majority of the focus when it comes to student housing. There are some districts that are opting to build apartments as opposed to dorms. There are others that build dorms.

What I can say that the state did in its program initially is it looked at cost per bed. So, effectively, it was trying to say how can we get the maximum number of beds at the most affordable cost possible. And I would say most colleges are looking to do that too.

They're trying to get the biggest bang for the buck for their students that they possibly can.

And the most successful, which school is the most successful that you've done? The largest project?

So, the largest project online is probably the Napa Valley Project, I believe, is likely the largest by bed count. I don't have all of the data in front of me, but of those that have come online recently, it's Sierra, it's Lake Tahoe, and it's Riverside, that have all recently come online. The rest are in development.

I do believe Orange Coast Community College has 750 bed facilities. So, that might be the largest I've heard of. And their project is a P3 project, so, and it opened several years ago.

Thank you.

It was great to hear about the successes throughout the State of California. We thank you for that information. And let's thank the first panel, please. And let's welcome our second panel.

All right, we're going to do a time check, Valerie. So she tells me we have three to five minutes per speaker. All right, I'd like to welcome our next panelist, Dr. Alberto Roman.

He's the Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District was the nation's largest and most diverse two year college system serving more than 194,000 students across nine colleges. He was officially appointed Chancellor in May of 2025, but had been the interim since November of 24. We're very proud of him.

Los Angeles may claim him, but he's from the Inland Empire and so we're claiming him first. All right. And our second panelist is Jose Torres, Executive Vice Chancellor of Fiscal, Administrative and Media of the San Bernardino Community College District. We're claiming him, too.

Jose oversees a 200 million operating budget that supports the mission of Crafton Hills College, San Bernardino Valley College and KVCR. He's dedicated his career to working on expanding access to affordable housing and higher education.

Before joining San Bernardino Community College District, he served for nearly a decade as Vice President of Finance at the Housing Authority for the County of San Bernardino. With us also is Jatan, Senior Staff Attorney for Public Advocates. Jatan is a senior Staff Attorney on the Education Equity team where she advocates for equity in the higher education system.

She joined Public Advocates in March of 2021 and leads the team's advocacy and enforcement work on developmental education reform policy in the community college system. Welcome to the three of you. The fourth panelist will be joining us by Zoom. All right, so let's begin with Dr. Roman.

Good morning. Thank you, Chair Reyes. Honorable Members of the Committee, I'm going to truncate my 10 minute to a 3 minute and will do my best to get through, but I have certainly a lot to speak on this topic. First and foremost, again, thank you so much for inviting us this morning.

In talking about Los Angeles County, many of you know this is one of the most expensive housing markets in California, probably in the nation. low vacancy rates, soaring rents, and ever-increasing demand. Financial aid often fall short of many of our students being able to cover rent. We have some of the lowest socioeconomic areas in the country.

And our students tell us again and again that their affordability threshold is below $750 a month. So the impact, as you know, has been devastating with the fires and other incidents that have taken place recently, putting affordability of housing more and more far away from our students.

It's been said already, and I'll say it again, no student should ever have to choose between the roof over their head and pursuing an education. That's fundamental to us. This is why the board of trustees at LACCD and our colleges continue to be committed to tackling the crisis head on.

In 2022, Los Angeles County voters supported a $5.3 billion facility bond for LACCD, which dedicates $500 million to equitable and affordable housing for students and staff. I want to give you the magnitude of that as we're talking about serving thousands and thousands of students across Los Angeles. Today, we talked about various ways to support student housing.

I have to tell you, LACCD, because of our size, because of our magnitude, is looking at a multipronged approach. And here's what that means. First, the fastest way for us to purchase existing buildings, Senator Durazo alluded to this, is repurposing affordable student housing. That's one of the options that we're looking at.

So we have already issued an RFP and we're actively reviewing proposals for properties that could in fact, be converted quickly into safe, affordable housing for our students. So that's the first option that we're looking at. It is sort of a P3 approach, looking at, you know, housing vacant buildings across Los Angeles that could be turned into housing.

Our second approach, and I think Chancellor Christian alluded to this, is partnerships. We have four universities nearby in Los Angeles, our CSUs and our UC campuses. They are looking to lease student housing beds for our community college students. Many of our students transfer into CSUs.

Imagine the notion of putting our students at a CSU that they were likely transferred to and putting them there early on so they can begin to take those transferable courses and then seamlessly transition into their four year university education. So this is the second option that we're looking at.

We're talking to Cal State LA, we're talking to CSUN, we're talking to other universities within the area. And that seems to be a very good approach. As you have probably noted, some of our CSUs are beginning to see decline in enrollment.

So beds are available, they're ready to go, and we have the capital to be able to work with them on placing students. So that's the second option.

The third option, as Chair Reyes alluded to, one of the areas of interest today is a 4 RFP for, again, a P3 that would actually allow us to develop, design and build on one of our campuses. We are looking at Los Angeles City College as the place where we would build a 400 to 800 dorm facility on campus.

Sounds like this would be the largest one so far. We are putting out RFPs now as we speak and getting a consultant to help us develop that. I think what's key here as we're all looking at various options, is the affordability component.

The fact that these have to be able to sustain themselves, the fact that they have to pay for themselves, and the fact that they cannot encroach on our general fund budget. So the reality is that our students cannot afford to pay a high rate. And so we have to find ways to subsidize housing for our students.

The amount of funding that we have received from the Legislature to various bills, it's certainly going to help us.

We're tracking very closely the housing bill AB 648, because we will be building outside of our campus and this will be an important Bill for us if it passes, to be able to not run into obstacles in terms of zoning.

So in the interest of time, I'm going to close this out by saying that just to share some numbers for LACCD, 200,000 students, the largest community college district in the nation. The last study that was done showed that 23% of our students at some point experience some kind of housing insecurity. Think about that.

It's about 40 to 50,000 students. And so when we're talking about building dorms on campus, LACCD has to look for various ways to meet that need. Because even if we build at every one of our campuses, we're not going to be able to meet that need. Partnerships with CSU are important.

The P3 models that we're looking at to acquire facilities. But the need is great. Members of this Committee, we will continue to ensure that that's a priority. It is a priority of the board. It's a priority of me and our college presidents.

But if our students are worrying about where they're going to land and rest their head at night, they're not focused on their studies. So that has become the number one priority for many of my colleagues across the state, student housing. We appreciate the support we're getting from the Legislature.

Any funding associated with this in the future will certainly help us get where we need to go. But LACCD is beginning our projects. We're going to attack this in a multi prong approach and we hope to be able to meet all of the various needs that we have in LA.

So again, thank you so much for this opportunity, Madam Chair, and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Dr. Roman. All right, let's hear from Jose Torres from San Bernardino Community College District.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Senator Eloise Gomez Reyes, thank you for having us Senators, thank you for having Samaritan Community College District for allowing us to share our perspective and the things that we're doing, our district, the very creative things that we're doing. I'm going to bring it all back to what our panelists have already stated.

You know, Chancellor Christian spoke of access and spoke of housing that has become a basic need more than anything right for our students. President Duncan spoke of family housing and how there's still a gap for that for us to meet.

And then Executive Vice Chancellor Ferguson spoke of community colleges being sometimes rich in land but poor in money and some arena community colleges, we're poor in land and poor in money, but we're making it happen. There is a PowerPoint presentation in front of you and I'll talk as I move the slides.

But let me share with you what our students told us. We conducted a survey, a feasibility study of our students at Seminar Valley College and Crafton Hills College and three out of five students reported housing insecurity. Senator Durazo, you mentioned 61%.

That's 60%, very close to our district told us. One in four said there has been homeless in the last year. That's 25% of our students. That's tremendous. So it was a significant impact. We also did a feasibility as to who wants housing. 50%, more than 50% want a family housing.

So that will show you the need for family housing as well in community colleges. It's not just about traditional student housing itself, also family housing. But this is not a state weight average. This is our county, this is San Bernardino. This is what's happening our district pretty much.

And that's one of the all those are the reasons why we embarked into creating something very creative for our district. And that's what we're going to show you. So what we have here is our board approved what we call Legacy Village as a Moreno Valley College. It's a transformative, a catalyst, mixed use student and workforce housing.

Workforce is not synonym for family housing. Development at San Bernardino Valley College. First phase will include 230 student units which equates to 450 beds. It also going to have 182 workforce family housing units. It is going to have 80 units for youth and families. And this is something, and this is where I bring it back to we're land poor.

We purchased 15 acres that we own now in order to remove the barriers for us to develop this project. So this is what we did. This is what we're doing as a very creative district. This is not dorm-style. This is not miles away from the district. It's walking distance from the college.

It's less than a mile from the college. It's walking distance. Legacy Village is a housing as community infrastructure, stabilizing students, families and workers alike. This is a P3 model. That's what we're working on. You know, Senator Arreguin asked about P3. This is what we're doing. This is what we're doing.

This is the only way we start to make it happen for our families, for our students, our district. Again, it's a public partner partnership. With approvals in place, we are ready to ground break, to do groundbreaking next year. To make this project truly affordable for students and families, we're asking a $50 million state investment.

What does that mean? So, what that $50 million will make 200 of these units affordable, truly affordable for students. Without it, they have to be price of market rates and students just can't pay that as we heard from the panelists over and over. This is not a concept. This is not a feasibility study. It's shovel-ready.

It is ready to do the groundbreak. With your support, students can move in 2029. It's a three-year construction project. Without it, Legacy Village risk becoming just another market rate development. And students cannot afford that. Students will remain homeless, couch-surfing as the Chancellor stated as well, or in cars. And we don't want that.

We also have another project, Crafton Hills, which is an on-campus project, fully planned and ranked number nine on the Chancellor's office list of statewide housing projects. But there's a problem. Current state funding runs out before reaching projects like Crafton Hills. We're not going to see funding for this.

Without an expanded state investment, this shovel-ready project won't move forward, leaving students in a region behind again. So this is why we like the state support in two ways. First, please increase the affordable student housing grant program. So shower ready projects like Crafton Hills are not left unfunded. Second, please fund housing models that fit students' lives.

Traditional Dorm designed for 18 year olds do not fit community college students. Do not serve all the community college students. Again, remind you 50, more than 50% want family housing at our district. What about students with jobs? You heard about students with jobs and children.

We need flexibility to design family-friendly units and our students can succeed, persist and graduate. And that's where I'll stop for now. But I do want to. Senators, this tuition is not the only barrier anymore at a community college.

Housing is as you heard from the panelists, well before. The Mary Duna students have told us what they need. They told us what they want. They told us the necessity, the basic need. Our projects, both projects are shovel ready. What we need now is the state to expand funding for community college housing.

Update program rules of family friendly housing models qualify for support. And a $50 million commitment from the state will make 200 of these units truly affordable for students at Legacy Village. If California is serious about affordability, it cannot just mean tuition anymore.

It has to mean a roof, and a roof that has to fit the lives of community college students. Thank you for having us again, and we're more than happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. I'd like to welcome. Now, Jetaun, am I pronouncing that correct? Well, that's what Matt from my chief said. Yes, that's my friend, Jetaun Stevens, Public Advocates.

Thank you. I love Matt. Can you hand me the clicker as well? Thank you. Good morning and thank you, Senator Gomez Reyes, for inviting me. Thank you, Valerie. It's a pleasure to be here. And I. I want to commend you for continuing to keep this very important issue at the forefront.

And I also want to commend all the representatives from the Chancellor's office as well as the presidents and colleges that are here who are also continuing to fight for this issue for their students. As you mentioned, my name is Jetaun Stevens.

I'm a Senior Staff Attorney at Public Advocates, and I also lead our team's work on affordable student housing. For folks that don't know, we're a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination and student housing. Affordable student housing is certainly one of those areas that challenges poverty.

And this is just our higher education team. We do work across a number of different areas. Housing, education, transportation, climate justice. And in 2023, we convened the California Affordable Student Housing Coalition, which is really what brings me before you today

And at Public Advocates, we really believe that communities that are most impacted by policy are the best policy experts. So student power building has been central to the work of this coalition that we have convened. And we work with students to ensure that they are able to be active participants in the political process and to shape the policies that impact them.

And as you can imagine, student housing is a policy that we hear from students, everywhere we go, is at the forefront of what they are concerned about.

So when we convened the coalition and started working on affordable student housing in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, we hosted a number of workshops throughout this state, meeting with over 100 students across the three segments. And we asked them to respond to a number of different prompts.

But what I really want to highlight, I think is relevant for the panel today, is what the students had to say about what does affordable student housing really mean to them. And these are the things that really rose to the top.

And I think they echo a lot of the things that some of my fellow panelists have mentioned. Students want to be able to live with dignity. They want affordable housing, but they want it to be. They don't want to be living on top of each other and they want it to be close to campus.

Students want housing to be deeply affordable. One of the things that students really raised a lot of concerns about is that with the housing grant program, the rent is based on the area median income as opposed to how students actually pay for college and college cost. Students want college costs to be based on their income.

And you know, there are studies that talk about 30% of a person's income being going towards housing is really what we should be aiming for. And that is what students are asking for. And they want the cost to be controlled and money to be going towards affordable student housing. And students were very concerned about housing being equitable.

Like who are we prioritizing with our state investment? They want low income students and students that are marginalized to be prioritized when it comes to affordable student housing. And they want it to be inclusive and they want barriers to be minimized. Unit requirements.

They want to make sure students that may otherwise be left out are being considered and that there's oversight to ensure that the housing is inclusive. And finally, but probably most importantly for students, they want to be involved. They don't want to just, you know, have administrators or state policymakers talking about this without them.

They want housing that is designed with them, with their input and that meets their needs. So with that, I have six recommendations to improve affordable student housing policy in our state. And this is coming from Student Center Solutions as well as some of our partners in the coalition.

First of all, I'm just going to echo what I think everyone here is saying. The state should continue to invest in affordable student housing. Affordable student housing makes college accessible for low-income students. Without it, many students don't consider going or they can't, they have to stop going, right?

And for community colleges in particular, you have a number of shovel ready product, excuse me, projects that are ready to go. And then the state also invested money for 70 colleges to receive planning grants. So we should not walk away from that investment. We should lean into that investment.

And building student housing on campus is another way to add to community housing without displacing low income residents that might be living around community college. And those are often future students that are going to go to community college.

And I think one thing too that I really want to emphasize is that, and I believe President Duncan mentioned this, a lot of students at community college are older. I think the average age for a community college across the state is 29.

So these are students who don't qualify for transitional age youth housing, which many community colleges do partner with community providers who do that. And they're often not prioritized. If you're not a parent, if you're not a part of a family with children, you're not prioritized for other community housing resources.

So building affordable student housing on campus for low income students who are older and maybe single, you're really actually filling a gap in housing resources that exist for students.

And then finally, probably the most important, or not the most important, but a very important reason is that it works, like students are able to reach their goals when we house them and we give them a safe place to be.

I'm also recommending, and I think we've heard this, but we should be prioritizing housing insecure and homeless students. We've all sort of cited the data. We all probably can cite the data, we've memorized it. 60% housing insecure. Nearly a quarter of students across the state reporting, experiencing homelessness within the year.

And we know that there are certain students who experience housing insecurity and homelessness more than others. We should be tailoring any sort of state investment to those students to alleviate those challenges. So I would also encourage the state to incentivize projects that address the needs of these students. We should be incentivizing student parent housing, family housing.

We should be incentivizing housing for older students. And then we should be requiring, especially when we're talking about the state, investing in housing, requiring that students that are experiencing homelessness are prioritized when we're talking about housing. Again, students want housing to be based on their income. I think that really makes sense.

You know, there are models out there and like social housing context where housing is based on a person's income and not an area median income. And I think one of the things that we're hearing from students in places like Napa Valley, where even though it's based on area median income, it's still not low enough for students.

And so students aren't living there because they can't afford it. Right. And like who of us can, has an area median income in Napa Valley? Right. It's very high.

And so we really ought to be focusing on how are students, the types of money that students are earning and basing our housing cost on the students' income and financial aid and not an arbitrary number. We also should be removing barriers to entry, housing first. Students shouldn't have to earn affordable housing.

Students are there because they're already motivated to be in school and we should again be offering this resource for them to be able to stay there. So we should be eliminating barriers, either reducing or eliminating unit requirements. I think President Duncan mentioned this as well. Most of the students in community college are part-time students. Right.

And if we're talking about 60% experiencing housing insecurity, a quarter experiencing homelessness, we're necessarily talking about part-time students. So we should be offering housing to them as well and not having a unit requirement that excludes them. We should be streamlining the processes and incentivizing intersegmental projects as well, we've heard that.

May I ask you to wrap it up?

Yeah, just two more and I think I'm done. The other thing I want to emphasize too, that I haven't heard yet, but I think is really crucial, is that we need better data collection.

We have a proposal before the Crater to Career Data system to help track longitudinal impacts of housing insecurity and homelessness on students. But we also need better data collection from the colleges and the system. And then the last thing, and probably most important is that students need to be incorporated intentionally in the policymaking.

And for state policy, that can mean, you know, ensuring that when we're writing policy, we're requiring student engagement when we're talking about building these projects. Thank you.

Thank you. The students often remind me, so nothing about us without us. And that is key. Before we go to questions, I would like to invite my colleague, Senator Christopher Cabaldon to offer some opening remarks if he'd like.

Well, if you say Napa out loud in this building, then I magically appear as the Senator who represents the Napa Valley and Sonoma, Yolo and Solano, Sacramento, Contra Costa counties. I just want to really thank the Chair for leading this conversation.

We've had so many discussions and debates about student housing at UC and CSU, even right now as we consider the housing bond that's pending before the Legislature and to really dive deep into the opportunities and the possibilities and the challenges at community colleges is very, very important.

So I serve on the Senate Education Commission, but in my prior life I was vice chancellor of the community college system. And so this work is essential.

And I really believe that. With so much of housing, whether it's community college student housing, UC and CSU student housing, affordable housing, generally transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, market rate housing, all of it, the challenges are in the financing. I mean, that is the number one.

The number one issue is, is where to get the cash, what the financing mechanisms that can promote the right amount of public and private partnerships, federal supports and other sorts. Those are the immediate challenges that I think we face.

And it certainly as the trustee has mentioned, and Napa Valley is a great example of that. We have another empty housing project associated with one of our institutions in Sonoma as well. And we haven't gotten that. We haven't gotten that mix right every time. But.

And the challenge will be to do that in a way, in my view, to be able to promote the construction of housing that will meet the needs of students, as we've heard, and is also financially viable, either in the market or through the very limited programs that we have in at the state level. It's not an easy.

It's not an easy match to make. But I'm so. Which makes me even more grateful that the Senator, with the deep expertise and knowledge and also knows just how to get stuff done, is leading this effort in this Committee. So thank you for having me and for convening the.

Thank committee and thanks to all the witnesses as well.

Thank you, Senator. Actually, before we go to questions, we'd like to hear from Jasmine Garcia, student trustee from San Bernardino Community College District. Jasmine?

Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so sorry that I can't be there in person, Senator, and Valerie, thank you so much for including me in this. As you stated, I am a student at Crafton Hills College. I serve as a student trustee, and that includes San Bernardino Valley College for our district.

And I'd like to share a little bit about why affordable housing, especially for community college students, matters so much. For me, it's not just a policy issue. It's personal. When I first started college at 17, my biggest stress wasn't passing classes. It was figuring out where I was going to sleep.

And I went through housing insecurity and times of homelessness. And eventually, I had to step away from school, not because I didn't care or because I wasn't capable, but because surviving had to come first.

It took me 10 years to finally get a place where I could come back to college, and that's 10 years that I could have spent moving forward in my education and my career. And I know that I'm not the only one. I hear these same struggles from classmates all the time.

I actually heard from one yesterday that students are constantly being forced to make impossible choices. Do I go to class, or do I work another shift so I can make rent? Do I study for my exam, or do I figure out where I'm going to live next month?

These aren't easy decisions that students should have to make, yet they're happening every single day. On top of that, many of us are commuters.

For me, long drives, traffic, and even trains block my town for hours, which means that I can't come home during the day to eat or rest, and I have to find a job that fits around everything. It's not just—time is just as important as a student, and with commuters, it's especially difficult.

And it's a reminder that without affordable housing options, students are stretched thin in every single direction. Just trying to get to class or access resources like tutoring or study sessions, that can feel like another barrier. Community college students already balance so much. We're workers, we're parents, caregivers, and often, the first in our families to take this path.

But unlike students at UCS or CSUs who have more access to affordable housing, less than 1% of community college students in California have access to on-campus housing, and students like us, the ones with the most financial need who are left with the least support.

As many of you have already stated and other panelists, stable housing isn't a luxury. It's a basic need. And without it, students struggle to stay in school, let alone graduate. With it, we can actually focus on our education instead of just surviving. Community colleges are where so many Californians get their start.

And if we don't address housing, too many students will never get past the starting line. Investing in student housing isn't just about a bed to sleep in. It's about giving students a real chance to succeed, to graduate, and to give back to their communities.

That's why I'm here, just to remind everybody that students are at the center of this conversation, which we all know, but because when students have a safe place to live, we can finally do what we came here to do, which is graduate, learn, move forward, and contribute to our communities in a meaningful way.

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Thank you so much, Jasmine. I'm sure you heard, as...was saying, that students have to be at the center of any of these policies. Do we have any questions from my colleagues? I have one question because I keep getting nudged and keep getting messages.

I have one question then, to ask in general, is how can the Legislature support student housing efforts via policy efforts? And I think a second part to that, and I know that we have been in bad budget years recently. I know that from this discussion earlier from President Duncan, we know that there was a time when the Legislature did the right thing and provided some grants.

Those days are gone right now, but we need to get back to that. We need to recognize because budgets are a reflection of our priorities.

And if we say that our community colleges, college students are a priority, then we need to be able to provide for that housing. But so, how can the Legislature support student housing efforts via policy and via the budget when we finally get to that point?

If I may. So, the first one, the policy, it has to do, you know, you heard it from Executive Chancellor for a reason. The criteria for the SB 169 was cost per bed. That, in itself, is very traditional student housing, which doesn't serve the families. You heard it from multiple panelists, even the Senators as well.

Our students also includes about 50, if not more than, percent of our students are families. So, when it comes to the legislation, that's one of the ways that you can incorporate legislation of how can we incentivize housing that includes family housing, that includes workforce housing more than anything.

I believe that's one of the biggest challenges. When it comes to the funding I mentioned to you, we are seeking a $15 million investment to make our project affordable for our students and our families. That's the only way. You know Senator Cabaldon, you spoke about finances, right? That's my area of expertise. That's where I focus on.

We can make the project pencil right now, but it has market rate rents. We can't offer that to our community. How can we do offer that to our students?

So, we're seeking the 50 million investment to make it affordable so that everyone, if we reduce those access by the, that happens for their families and their students as well.

Yes, I know that for your project you are including former foster youth, former homeless youth, families, veterans. How is it that you came to that decision to include them?

Definitely. So, every single aspect that you heard here, every single issue that you heard here, we have heard it before. We heard our veterans suffer from not having a home that they call home. We know the foster youth transition out and then they don't have any place to go.

We have, again, we heard it from our facility study that 50% of our students, at least 50% of our students have families. How can they go into a dorm that is not appropriate? We heard from everywhere.

So, all those different aspects that you heard from the panelists today, we heard them before, and we wanted to build a project that addresses a portion of all the different needs that exist out there.

Wonderful. Thank you.

If I can add, Senator, to the eloquent response you received, I think what makes community colleges unique is that we serve all students. And you've heard it already, we serve the dual students in high school, we serve the adult parents, we serve, you know, the students coming out of high school.

I think that is, in many instances, the only gateway for higher education for many students full time, you know, folks at work, parents, foster youth, justice impacted, you name it, our students are there.

So, I think to the extent that we can expand the eligibility for students to be able to be part of housing is going to be critical.

I don't believe there is a greater need right now for community college students to be able to persist and graduate than addressing basic needs. That is fundamental to all of our colleges across the state. If we're not meeting those basic needs, our students are not going to persist. Our students are not going to graduate.

So, as a priority, I think for the state, and I know we are in certainly lean budget times, but I think when you look at the community college as a gateway for students to have access to education, basic needs rise to the top.

So, we would, of course, implore to the legislation, as we look at future years, to consider the funding and expanding those opportunities for other students, that are not traditional students, to be able to also afford the opportunity to be housed.

And then lastly, in terms of the policy, AB 648 is one of the bills that we're following very closely. This would, again, allow us to, for example, at LACCD, be able to build, you know, outside of our campus in some areas that we're looking at and not be able to have to face those potential issues around zoning.

So, we're watching that legislation very closely. There will be other opportunities for us to come forward before the Legislature and propose ways to allow us to really be able to explore other housing opportunities.

But again, I think at the core is who we serve and the ability to serve, not just that student coming out of high school, but the parents, the students coming back from working 20 years and not being able to make a livable wage. So, we serve the full array of students.

And I think it's very important for the Legislature to look at this approach in a very holistic manner.

One of the things that I heard you mention often is the issue of equity, and I appreciate that you bring that to the forefront because the students that are being served in our community colleges, it is an issue of equity. So, I appreciate that so much.

Thank you so much.

Now, Jetaun, I know that I asked for just a general question, but you've talked about the importance of involving students and involving so many others. How do you involve the students and faculty communities in your advocacy work?

Yeah, thank you. And I...

If you want to answer the first question, that's fine.

Yeah. Well, I also want to say that I love Napa Valley and I love going, and it was no shade. I just could never live there. I think I went through a number of housing recommendations, so I won't rehash them.

But I think one of the things that we should also consider, and I did mention this, this has been mentioned before, is really taking an intersegmental approach as well. Yes, we want to—we should be harnessing, you know, the land and the willingness in the community college system to expand housing.

But also, we should be thinking about our students, and their journey holistically and how do we—how can we—leverage, like, all of our student housing? And I think that would help both. That would help students across all three segments, and it's a resource that we have readily available.

So, for the coalition, we have 14 different organizations. We really work with student led organizations. I mentioned our student power building work. My team is in the room with me. Angela is our student engagement associate. You got to raise your hand so they can see you.

And she's really dynamic in like chasing down students, you know, especially we really want students in our work group who have lived experience and oftentimes, there are students who are literally experiencing it in the moment. And so, sometimes it could be very challenging for them to be engaged in the policy.

And so, we really try to bring it to them and make sure that we're able to hear their voices. And students want to be heard. When we tell them what we're doing and we're inviting them to our meetings, they show up because they really want to be able to weigh in.

So, we really prioritize working particularly with communities most impacted, in that case, students.

Thank you. Yes, Senator.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank Ms. Jasmine Garcia, the student trustee, for providing her testimony today. And you know, as was shared, we do have to elevate real time student input in these decision-making processes.

And it's the students' lived experiences, as you shared with us today, that must drive our urgency to act. And so, thank you to each of our panelists for the work that you are doing and leading the way. And thank you, Madam Chair, for convening today.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I had my community college hat on a moment ago. Let me put my budget subcommitee hat on because it's not, I mean, let's be real, it's not 2019. And I know we were struggling this year.

We had, we, our entire Senate delegation fought to the death in order to fund any dollars for affordable housing. The Governor proposed zero for the year and we fought hard. And we fought hard, and we won. We won by succeeding in getting half as much money as we had before.

And that's on the broad based affordable housing side.

And so, we're facing some massive headwinds even in that while the cost of, because of tariffs and other things, the cost of construction is up and the ability of Californians to afford to the point about the 30% threshold being an important marker, Californians, because the cost of everything is going up, their ability to afford even last year's housing prices, if they hadn't gone up, has also been compromised.

So, we're facing a substantial California-wide crisis. And I am, I'm always proud of my community college family because we believe that we can solve everything ourselves.

You know, during the, when the basic focus on basic needs, basic needs began, we thought, how do we make sure that no student is hungry, as an example, that no student is unhoused?

And it's a, it's a—and there's a very helpful hubris about the notion that we can when the rest of California, the rest of American society, is failing, that somehow we will come up with the program that will accomplish it. Do not lose that. Don't, you know, do not lose that. Because it is that sense of hope and determination that is essential.

And at the same time, we do need to focus on how the mechanics, the instruments that will make it better today than it was yesterday while we're trying to reach that, that big solution. And it's why the legislation about zoning is an important step.

And I know the chair of the local government Committee was here earlier detailing some of the other things that we're doing in order to try to make it easier for colleges to move forward.

And it is why, you know, figuring out how to perfect these public private partnerships more and more, bringing more affordable housing developers into the mix, not just traditional student housing developers into the mix, who are familiar with tax credits and other, other ways of bringing money in.

And I'm just emphasizing that because even though I don't serve on the Budget Subcommittee that oversees community colleges, the likelihood that there's going to be a billion-dollar program to accomplish all of these things and also make sure that nobody has to share a unit and it's within two blocks of the campus, these are big lifts at a time when we have less and less money, and that just means we have to be more creative.

And so, as we continue to press on the resources which are needed and necessary, it is, I just beseech you to keep bringing the other, you know, other, whether we think of them as band aids or, you know, just, you know, incremental, we need it all.

We need the big picture answers, the strong leadership of our, of our chair, and we need folks on the ground, folks that are working with students, folks that are put that are in the bank trying to make the deal happen, come to us with, you know, every possible solution that we can implement in order to, to, you know, to open up a truly affordable, you know, unit of housing each, each moment through this process.

So, really appreciate the work that you and that the other panels have also modeled in this, as we kind of, as we try to get that blend right and focus on getting it done. So, thanks, Madam Chair, so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. Again, I want to thank all of our panelists for all the work that you do for our students and for being here with us and sharing your wisdom with the rest of us. This is now time for public comment.

I ask that if somebody wants to come up and provide some public comment, you can provide it to us, send it by email also. But we ask that you give your name and limit it to 30 seconds because I've been nudged a few times already. Thank you.

Hi, good morning, chair and members. Carol Gonzalez, on behalf of Long Beach City College, really just to thank you for having this conversation. Long Beach has been a supporter of the state lease revenue bond previously as a grant. They've applied for numerous years at this point. They're shovel ready. It's been approved by their board.

They're hoping to move forward with the their existing bond, but either way, they hope that they can be an example of what interconnected city and district government could look like. They have a great relationship with their local CSU where they're hoping to help support their students, especially as they transfer.

They're hoping to prioritize the most vulnerable communities on their campus thereafter, including those students who transfer so that they have a, they can keep their housing as, even if—even as they transfer.

And then after that, address the students that are on a wait list for CSU Long Beach because they know that there's a great need locally that they're hoping to address.

They hope that this could be a model that other school districts use and they hope to be a partner for schools who are looking to get a greater understanding of how they made their partnership happen, similarly to their Long Beach College Promise, and they hope that this could be an affordable student housing promise for other schools.

And so, thank you again for your leadership.

Thank you. And you also have a great advocate in our Majority Leader, Senator Lena Gonzalez, who was here earlier.

Hi, Senator Gomez Reyes. My name is Angela Estrada and I'm with Public Advocates. I work as our Student Engagement Associate, so I get to hear directly from students, different ways, student centered solutions, that we can tackle housing insecurity and homelessness in the State of California.

Something that I want to highlight that we heard a lot today was to prioritize students who are most in need families and really make that housing affordable so that students can access it. Also, something that Senator Cabaldon mentioned is that we need those like, immediate things too, something that some folks might call band aids.

But a lot of projects are not ready to start until like 2029 or almost 2030, so we need solutions now so that encourage things like safe parking, rapid rehousing investments. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, I'm Griselda Chavez, on behalf of the Gavilan College. We appreciate the colleagues before us that shared about the need for equitable housing. Recently, we applied for a construction grant and the latest bond request, where we found ourselves at the end of the list and competing with basic aid colleges who have greater financial resources available.

So, we hope that the Legislature can continue to fund the statewide lease revenue funds so we can participate in the next round with a more equitable process where our students' needs are being met and, in turn, making higher education more accessible. Thank you.

Thank you. Now, where is your college?

It's Gavilan College in Gilroy, I believe.

Okay, very good. Thank you.

Thank you.

Gilroy, the city of Garlic. I love it. My husband doesn't.

Good morning, Madam Chair and Senators. David Nebben, on behalf of Santa Monica College, one of the proud co-sponsors alongside LA Community College District for AB 648.

I appreciate all the very thoughtful words for that Bill today and look forward to how this Committee can continue to break down all the barriers to building affordable student housing in the future. Thank you.

Wonderful. I think with Senator Maria Elena Durazo leading that, there's a greater opportunity to see success there.

Thank you.

Hi, good morning, Senator. Rebecca Killeen, on behalf of the Community College Facility Coalition. We've been really involved in the development and the implementation of the SB 169 program. We want to thank you for your leadership on this very important issue. You asked what is something that you can do now to help support these student housing efforts and vision.

And one thing I want to put before you is we want to ensure that the projects that have already been approved by the state are successful. And there are a handful of projects that do need some additional support in order to get across that finish line.

There's about $218 million in unallocated funds that have already been approved that are part of that lease revenue bond program have been unallocated.

And that is an additional source of funding that you can tap into in order to help those project that have seen that cost escalation, that have seen those costs inch up as they plan those projects and realize the supports that they really need to provide to ensure success.

And so, we're looking for a commitment to help those projects get across the finish line. Thank you.

Thank you. And I can tell you that some of the panelists and some others who are here are very happy that you are saying that because they're ready, they're shovel ready, and they just are looking for the money. All right. Well, I thank you all once again for being here. Such an important topic.

We hope that it has been informative for you. And please reach out to our office if you have any questions or reach out to any of my colleagues, any of the panelists that you have heard from today. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. This meeting is adjourned.