By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Reporter
As Tidal Wave II lurks on the horizon, lawmakers in Sacramento
are trying to help California’s public university students
find affordable housing close to their campuses.
Noting the “serious shortage of housing” and the
anticipated influx of 60,000 students to the University of
California over the next 10 years, the University of California
Students Association has endorsed Assembly Bill 1611, which would
create the Affordable Higher Education Housing Fund to help finance
the construction of housing on or near campuses of the UC, the
California State University system and the state’s community
colleges.
“We hope and believe the bill will provide for more
affordable housing for college students,” said UCSA Chair
Debbie Davis.
Davis said UCSA helped Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Monterey, with
the bill’s construction.
“We did not write the bill, but we were very involved in
submitting (affordable university housing) as an issue,” she
said.
The bill would most affect schools like UCLA and UC Berkeley,
where rent rates in neighborhoods near schools are high and
continue to rise. An average one-bedroom apartment in Westwood goes
for between $1,300 and $1,400 a month, according to the UCLA
community housing office ““ and Berkeley rates are even
higher. At UCLA, rates have increased in each of the last four
years.
Currently, the bill is being considered by the Assembly
Committee on Appropriations, having been sent there after going
through the Committee on Housing and Community Development.
The bill would call for the Affordable Higher Education Fund to
give loans to nonprofit entities and to for-profit development
groups ““ provided they make plans to eventually hand
over ownership to nonprofit entities.
The fund would provide loans for up to 30 percent of costs to
build a new complex or convert an existing building into a housing
complex.
Attempting to end the era of increasing rent rates, the fund
would be responsible for determining which entities qualify for
loans. Loans would only be given provided the vacancy rate remain
under 5 percent and the complex would be built within a five-mile
radius of the campus. The affected university would maintain the
right to buy the complex at fair market price at any time.
Though much of the land within UCLA’s five-mile radius is
already developed, Brad Erickson, director of Campus Service
Enterprises, said re-development projects are possible and that a 5
percent or lower vacancy rate is realistic for this area.
“I’m not really aware of much vacant land here, but
buildings can be bought and re-developed, and turned into housing
complexes,” he said.
Erickson noted the Hotel Sepulveda project, where UCLA bought
land and turned older one- and two-story buildings into newer
three-story buildings.
Davis, meanwhile, pointed out that UCLA students could live in
an apartment complex that is within a five-mile radius of
California State University, Northridge, even if it is more than
five miles away from UCLA.
There is also a clause in the bill that says if the chancellor
or president of a university confirms there is little space to
develop within a five-mile radius of the campus, loans can be made
to those who plan to develop complexes near a mass transit
destination that is within 30 minutes of the campus.
“The language of the bill is very flexible,” Davis
said.
The bill is designed to make the loans forgivable if provisions
are met. The complex’s management must give students, faculty
and campus employees the first right of refusal. Also, the
complex’s tenants need to be 90 percent students or faculty,
and 50 percent of its students must qualify for need-based
financial aid.
Scott Svonkin, chief of staff for Assemblyman Paul Koretz, whose
district includes UCLA, said Koretz will most likely support the
bill.
“The assemblyman hasn’t heard the bill yet, but
because of Tidal Wave II, there is a critical shortage and a need
for housing,” Svonkin said. “The assemblyman does
support the need to provide more housing for students.”
Keeley’s bill goes a long way to provide students with
much-needed affordable housing, Svonkin added.
Svonkin was not sure if the bill would gain bipartisan support,
saying Republicans generally oppose anything involving bonds.
Davis, on the other hand, was confident the bill would pass by a
large majority.
Neither Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Arcadia, the vice chair
of the Committee on Housing and Community nor Assemblywoman
Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, vice chair of the Committee on
Appropriations, were available to comment on the bill.