Democratic California Assemblyman Corey Jackson introduced a bill making it easier for some college students in the Golden State to live in their cars on campus parking lots.
The legislation would apply to five California State University (CSU) locations as well as 20 California Community Colleges (CCC). Nearly half a million CCC students experienced homelessness in 2023 per a report from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.
“While emergency shelter in a vehicle is not ideal, it seems just a student knowing they may have a place to shelter, will go a long way to stabilizing their health and providing additional time to find a long-term housing solution,” Jackson said in a hearing last summer.
Cameron Jones, 26, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan, speaks about his living situation before going to sleep in a Safe Parking LA location near the Veteran’s Affairs Los Angeles Healthcare Center in Los Angeles, California, February 11, 2019. (Photo by Kyle Grillot / AFP) (Photo credit should read KYLE GRILLOT/AFP via Getty Images)
Jackson’s bill, which cleared the Assembly Higher Education committee along party lines last month, was delivered as his proposed solution to the housing crisis California students are currently facing. The legislation would require that pilot parking programs be kickstarted by July 2025, providing space for homeless college students to park on campus and live out of their vehicle.
Rather than having to stay in their vehicle off campus where Jackson argued might be unwelcome or unsafe, the program seeks to give students a secure location to live out of their cars. Jackson made it known this is not a forever-solution, but rather an immediate response for people unable to maintain the skyrocketing rent prices in the state.
The housing crisis is being felt by college students across California; 19% of students experienced homelessness and 60% felt housing insecurity, according to the Hope Center and the CCC, and approximately 30% of students were fully responsible for their housing expenses. Within the last decade, student homelessness has increased 48%, per the University of California at Los Angeles.
However, the proposal does not seem to sit well with the CCC. Nune Garipian, policy and advocacy manager with the Community College League of California, relayed concerns to lawmakers during a hearing over the bill last summer. Garipian listed numerous housing services community colleges already provide students, such as hotel vouchers, rental subsidies and rehousing programs, with concerns stemming from the bill diverting funds away from colleges’ existing programs.
“Establishing an overnight student parking program would require significant financial and administrative resources to ensure that students have a safe, clean and secure place to sleep at night,” Garipian said. “Our colleges unfortunately just do not have these resources available.”
Nonetheless, one school gave it a shot. Long Beach Community College (LBCC), a school with over 40,000 students and no on-campus housing, did a trial run of the proposal in 2022 after discovering that over 70 of their students were sleeping in their cars.
LBCC’s Safe Parking Program, which cost $200,000 to launch and maintain, only applied to students without children or spouses, and allowed students to stay at a parking structure on campus seven nights a week between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Wi-Fi and restrooms were provided, and campus showers were open for the students from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. daily.
The program was run in partnership with Safe Parking LA, an organization that provides safe overnight parking for those living in their vehicles, and security was overseen by the campus police office.
LBCC’s superintendent-president Mike Muñoz also experienced housing insecurity throughout college, often having nowhere else to go but the front seat of his car. Muñoz told Politico that by 2028 the school will provide 422 campus housing beds, but some students can’t afford to wait until then.
“I know what that feels like,” Muñoz told the outlet. “For us it was looking at the data in that moment and saying, ‘Hey, we know 70 students with real names and ID numbers that are sleeping in their cars.’”
Republican California Rep. Vince Fong’s district is home to both CSU Bakersfield and Bakersfield Community College — two schools that could potentially provide the overnight parking service under Jackson’s bill.
“Proposals to allow college students to sleep in their cars is a symptom of a housing crisis that is hurting students and everyday Californians. This is a consequence of policy failures coming from a liberal agenda that refuses to allow for the building of more housing, further worsening California’s affordability crisis,” Fong told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In dealing with a growing housing and homelessness emergency, California doesn’t need more parking lots, we need real solutions that cut red tape and end frivolous litigation so we can unleash housing development and build real roofs with real beds.”
Jackson, LBCC, CCC and CSU did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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