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CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

Housing

Axios: How the Affordable Housing Crunch is Hitting College Students

August 22, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

CSUDH housing complex.

Source: Axios

The affordable housing crunch has not spared students in college towns.

Why it matters: Students would need to earn about $72,000 a year to afford rent in America’s most expensive college towns, per a new report from InMyArea.

  • Rent costs range from about $250 per month in some rural towns to more than $1,800 in the priciest California county, the report found.

By the numbers: California is home to 16 of the country’s 25 most expensive college towns, with the three priciest cities all in Santa Clara County.

  • The most affordable off-campus housing is found in the southern and midwestern parts of the U.S., with the two cheapest in Kentucky.

What they’re saying: “Affordability and food and housing insecurities, if not addressed, have a direct impact on student success and retention rates,” said Deborah Wallace, vice president of administration and finance at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

  • There, 32.5% of the students there are under-represented, Pell-eligible and first generation – a group that is particularly vulnerable to housing and food insecurity, Wallace said.
  • “Housing affordability is essential to helping to ensure that the most vulnerable students are on campus and immersed for the highest chance of success,” Wallace told Axios.

What’s happening: College attendance increased with millennials, driving up demand for housing at and around universities, said Gary Painter, academic director of University of Cincinnati’s real estate program.

  • “What you didn’t see,” he said, “is the building of housing in those communities.”
  • This has become an issue that universities have been grappling with much more in the last five years, Painter added.
  • Many top-ranked colleges and universities are situated in places where housing supply is already constrained, Painter said. So when there’s an increase in the number of students and additional housing isn’t added quickly, prices soar.

Of note: College enrollment has been on the decline over the last few years but the drop may be slowing after reaching historic levels during the pandemic.

Zoom in: The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), which borders Beverly Hills, has reached its goal of guaranteeing four-year housing for undergraduates who come in as freshmen.

  • The university received grant funding from the state to add about 540 more beds at a rate of $600 per month, according to Pete Angelis, assistant vice chancellor of UCLA Housing & Hospitality.
  • Housing options that the university offers on-campus or in neighboring areas cost anywhere from 13-42% less than other nearby options.
  • The university capped room and board rates at increases of 2.5% for undergraduate students and 3% for graduate students per year.

The bottom line: While it’s not necessarily the responsibility of the schools to guarantee affordable housing, Painter said, they need to be transparent about the cost and the quality of housing to students who are choosing where to go.

Urbanize LA: Affordable Student Housing Coming to Cal State University, Dominguez Hills

June 7, 2023 By Lilly McKibbin

Rendering of new housing-dining complex on CSUDH campus

Source: Urbanize Los Angeles

More student housing is coming to the California State University, Dominguez Hills campus in Carson, per a notice issued by the CSU Board of Trustees.

The proposed Housing Phase 4 project, slated for a site located north of the existing residence hall near the intersection of International Avenue and Birchknoll Drive. The proposed $97-million project would provide space for up to 288 students in a mix of single, double, and triple residence rooms.

“Residents will be organized into clusters of 36 students and one resident advisor,” explains a project page on the CSUDH website. “Each cluster will contain a variety of room sizes, communal restrooms, an activity room, and small study nooks. A shared student lounge will be provided to connect two clusters. These shared lounges are further connected floor-to-floor through stair connections, bringing together 10 residential clusters into one large lounge on the ground floor. This will allow for students to form a close-knit group of peers and neighbors while also allowing for a greater sense of community.”

Steinberg Hart is designing the four-story building, which would be divided into two wings, and centered on a glass connector that would include building circulation functions and floor lounges. The concrete-frame building would have an exterior of grey cement board siding, partially covered with murals. Plans also call for a multipurpose room, administrative spaces, shared laundry facilities, and a new courtyard which will offer open space to residents.

The project will also be accompanied by a new dining commons, providing space for 315 indoor seats and 50 outdoor seats, while also connecting the student housing to the central campus.

The new dormitory is intended to provide accommodations for low-income students, with the aim of improving attendance and graduation rates. The housing is funded by the State’s Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program for 2022-2023, while the dining commons is funded in part through a one-time State allocation made in the 2021-2022 budget cycle. The university is also expected to seek bond funds to cover the cost of the project.

According to the project website, construction of the dormitory and dining commons is expected to commence in February 2024 and conclude by May 2026. C.W. Driver is serving as the project’s design-build contractor.

The project follows the completion of another CSUDH housing complex which opened on an adjacent site in 2020, as well as the addition of several new academic buildings along the northern section of the campus.

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