CCSF Once Provided Housing For Students, Now It's Time They Brought It Back
Of the 116 California community colleges, only 16 offer housing, and of those 16, two are in the Bay Area: Santa Rosa Junior College and Napa Valley College. City College should be one of these colleges.
By Franchon Smith
This is the 90th anniversary of our school and yes, while we have a lot to celebrate, I think one of the important things that we have to remember is that when the school was founded, the circumstances were different for students and their living situation. Today, we're in dire need of housing for students, faculty, and staff alike. I’m disheartened by the Board of Trustees' lack of support over the years for the push for student housing.
City College students, faculty and staff need housing provided by the school NOW.
Ocean Campus once had student housing, both where the STEAM building and Creative Arts building are, respectively.
But even when we had student housing, students' needs still exceeded what the school could offer. Fast forward to today, and the housing needs of the campus community have grown exponentially, with no solution so much as whispered.
Students are living in vehicles, and some students are homeless. It would be a great idea to have emergency housing as an option. Traditional dorms are fine; however, there are other options that can be explored, with emergency housing being one of them. The Ocean Campus has the space to do this.
There have been many studies done regarding students and housing, and the positive effect that it has on their grades, being close to resources, and so forth. It also needs to be mentioned that housing would bring jobs and revenue for the school, provided that it is handled correctly.
How would we pay for it? Bond measures. That’s how we paid for the three new buildings along Frida Kahlo Way, and I don’t see why it can’t be done again.
One of the obvious benefits of students living on campus would be saving time and money on transportation. As I previously mentioned, on-campus housing doesn’t have to be traditional dorm-style.
It can be tailored to what our campus community needs. As an example, Imperial Valley College, located in Imperial, California, east of San Diego, created the Lotus Living Tiny Homes for formerly homeless and housing-insecure students. It was funded through a variety of sources, including a $58.6 million bond, known as Measure L, passed in 2004, and the $80 million Measure J, approved in 2010.
I have often wondered why past and present Board of Trustees members, and especially the mayors of the City and County of San Francisco, do not want, or have not considered, the possibility of housing. Our campus community deserves housing just as much as the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and any other school with dormitories. CCSF has been part of San Francisco since 1935. The benefits of this are numerous.
With the housing crisis going on in our city and the Bay Area, it only makes sense to offer housing as a means to the path to success.
Of the 116 California community colleges, only 16 offer housing, and of those 16, two are in the Bay Area: Santa Rosa Junior College and Napa Valley College. City College should be one of these colleges.
The Guardsman newspaper has written countless stories about housing in general and how it affects our students. It would be nice to have an article about the opening day of the dormitories on Ocean Campus before our celebration of the college’s 100th anniversary.
