There were many things that Abdullah Enes Kut expected about the university in the Bay area.
As a Turkish international student who comes to South Bay, Kut could in a new culture, follow a higher education in the region rich in technology and live on his own. Pussy was ready to move to a pleasant apartment and reasonable prices near the Anza University in Cupertino, where he would study studying political sciences. It was almost too good to be true, he thought.
And it was.
Shortly after the pussy stepped on California’s floor in 2022, he discovered that the rent was a scam. With his first year starting soon, the pussy hastened to find housing, and there was very little that the university could do to help.
Despite its status as one of the destinations of the most popular community university for international students, Anza has no student accommodation. To make things worse, the suburb of Cupertino where the university is located has some of the most expensive real estate in the Bay area, the average rental can resort to more than $ 3,000 per month for a one -way apartment. Kut could save $ 1,200 for the housing.
It would be safe for a Sunnyvale subblet within its budget through Craigslist, but the difficulties of finding a place to live in the relentless real estate market would leave a lasting impression on it.
“It was a roller coaster, at best,” recalled the 20 -year -old.
But perhaps in the future, the students of the Community University such as Kut will see their housing options.
As rental prices increase in the area of the Bay and the region seeks to add thousands of new affordable homes by 2030, the districts of the Community University, including Anza, are taking measures to provide students with affordable homes. Their initiatives come, but the difficulties in obtaining millions in funds for such projects and acquiring land to do so have shortened the promises of some universities.
Of the 116 community conferences in California, only 12 sacrifes on the housing campus for students. None is in the Bay area, despite the state that identifies the region as One of the most insecure of the house for students.
The district of Fothill-of Anza Community College plans to add 332 affordable beds for the students in an existing apartment building of 94 units in 7918 McClellalan Road in Cupertino-Roughly halfway to the Campus of Anza and seven miles.
The district is financing the purchase and renovations of a measure of bonds of $ 898 million that was approved in 2020.
Other details are still being resolved, including students who will qualify for housing and how much they will pay for rent. The conferences hope to rent the apartments to the students this August and September.
Fothill-de Anza, who sings hundreds of students in the South Bay, also attracts many nearby students, most of whom face unstable housing, according to the district.
Allyhe will spend months before hundreds of people or students can call Cupertino Home, Pussy said the rooms will provide a very necessary relief for those who are insecure of housing.
“It’s a very indulgent idea,” Kut said. “Thinking about my own experience, it was difficult to reach 18 and solve everything … Being insecure of housing made me so discouraged for everything else, I had doubts about my educational choices, and almost returned (to Uganda).”
Near the district of San Mateo Community College, which covers the universities of San Mateo, Cañada and Skyline, is ready to add a housing project for students in 316 beds on their Matthew campus. The $ 86 million project is expected to be complete in 2027.
In East Bay, Ohlone College in Fremont is on the way to building more than 500 Roman on his Newark campus. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall, with an objective move date of January 2028.
But not all conferences that undertake their trip to acquire the return of students’ home with good news.
In 2023, the district of Peralta Community College, which consists of four universities Sross Spross Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda-postpon a plan of $ 93 million to add a new bedroom of 306 beds on its Alameda campus. The district came to request a state subsidy of $ 52 million in the summer of 2023 under a state housing program that supports the planning and construction of housing of affordable students.
However, the district proposal was not selected for financing, since another 11 districts of the Community University were classified before their application, according to the Mark Johnson district spokesman. With the limits in available financing, the project was arrested, considered “financially out of the reach of the district,” said Johnson.
“The fact that this subsidy process was so competitive really highlights the great demand for housing of affordable students throughout the state,” he said.
The former student of Laney College, Genie Sullivan, who was discouraged by the duration in school and legalized by housing for students in Peralta, said they hope the district still finds ways to make students the home of the students.
“If the district really wants to contain and retain students, they will have to seriously prioritize or discover housing options,” said Sullivan.
Community schools tend to serve local high school graduates who can travel from their homes or within the community. However, the demographic group of the typical community university is changing quickly, said Angela Estrada, a defender of public defenders, a non -profit law firm in California and a defense organization.
These days, many students are considered low income, come from other countries, juggled with multiple jobs or are older students with families, all are vulnerable to the insecurity of housing, according to Estrada.
“Society thinks” Oh, the students of the Community University are fine, they live at home with the parents, “he said.” But many do not have that privilege; Some of them are parents or are work work. They really need access to affordable homes. “
In Peralta, for example, 80% or their student body qualify as low income. Half are Rolers, with a majority living in complexes or apartment buildings, according to a 2023 district survey in Ohlone College, 12% of students experience the lack of housing, while 38% face the insecurity of the house.
Unlike community schools, four-year-old institutions have already established established systems that allow them to acquire, build and finance housing for students, according to Sbeydeh Viveros-Walton, director of Higher Education of Public Defenders.
Community schools operate with less financial resources, but they have to update so fast to meet their students’ demands. The task can be difficult, especially for the districts located in real estate areas exams such as Peralta, said Viveros-Walton.
“These are conferences located in areas that have some of the highest housing costs of the state and in the country,” he said. “It is one of the most difficult markets to enter, especially in affordable homes.”
The State has offered a relief of financial housing in the form of bill 169 of Senate 2021, or the Program for Student Housing Subsidies for Higher Education, a plan of $ 2 billion distributed in three years to support the systems of the University of Ashequible Housing.
Half of the money was assigned for community conferences, but with boxes competing for subsidies, only one handful could be selected. The Housing application of the San Mateo district was accepted and granted funds under the program; Perales, however, was not.
Despite the difficulties associated with the acquisition of housing, Anza Andrew Siegler’s student said the final result will benefit the academic and mental well -being of many students. When Siegler took courses in Anza in 2021, a hard 0.00 marked his transcription.
Siegler was not trying to fail his courses, but life made it difficult for him to prioritize school. The 45 -year -old man had no home, and lived inside and outside the shelters around San José. He only joined the Anza after learning of the VTA Bus passes with a discount from the University for the students, which would allow him to be affordable round to and from the campus. Siegler had inscribed in classes, only to abandon or fail them, since the stress of working and finding housing consumed it.
But then his luck came. In 2022, he was able to obtain homes in downtown San José. With a constant theft of his head, Siegler could focus better on his studies as a student of Political Science. Now, Siegler will graduate this June.
Your current GPA? At 3.75.
“Having homes will make a complete difference for those students,” said Siegler. “It is literally the only thing in my life that changed, and it made a difference in the world.”
