The Brief

Dorm life at Sacramento State University suited Sofia Gonzalez. Living on campus her first year, most classes were a 10-minute walk away. Most of her closest friends lived in the same residence hall. “Everything,” she said, was “right there.”

But this summer, as she prepared to start her sophomore year, friends who applied for university housing warned Gonzalez they had been placed on a wait list. Daunted by the limited supply of upperclassmen dorms — and most of all, the cost of on-campus rent — Gonzalez opted to try the private market instead. “There was nowhere I could live in my price range near campus,” said Gonzalez, a business and marketing major. She contemplated transferring to a community college or commuting two hours each way from her parents’ Bay Area home to Sacramento.

Housing can be a major barrier for low-income students like Gonzalez around the California State University system, which includes Sacramento State and 22 other campuses. Recent estimates have found that housing accounts for half the cost of attendance at CSU, and that 11% of CSU students surveyed experience homelessness or housing insecurity. 

That reality is one reason why CSU added more than 17,000 new beds between 2014 and 2024. About 5,600 more are either under construction or approved to be built. The investments in housing are giving CSU a more residential flavor, even as many campuses maintain their long-standing dependence on commuters.

Now the question is whether CSU should build even more housing, especially in hot real estate markets where students struggle to find off-campus alternatives. A systemwide housing plan issued by CSU in July sketches potential projects that could house an additional 12,600 students as soon as 2030.

CSU officials say on-campus housing improves students’ graduation rates and could ease housing pressures for Cal State’s 460,000 students, 87% of whom still live off campus with their families or otherwise. Future housing development could be uneven based on current enrollment trends across the system, which have left empty dorms at a handful of Cal State campuses, while others rework double-occupancy rooms into triples to meet growing demand.

At the same time, state lawmakers are weighing a potentially hefty 2026 bond measure for student housing and other educational facilities at CSU, the University of California and the California Community Colleges system. Supporters say the measure, which has yet to determine a dollar amount, could help make college more affordable for low-income students.

“To make sure students are successful in their learning, they’ve got to be able to have stable housing,” Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego, who introduced the legislation, said at a hearing on Assembly Bill 48.

At Cal State Northridge, which plans to open a new 198-bed housing complex this fall, 2,000 students were on a waiting list for housing in fall 2024, CSU data show. Kevin Conn, the university’s executive director of student housing and residential life, said his colleagues field regular calls from students desperate for student housing. “Their stories are really, really heart-wrenching, because we can only do so much,” he said. “We can’t just put them in; there’s no spot to put them.”

Sacramento State has faced a similar conundrum. Last fall, there were more than 4,400 students who requested to live in campus housing, but fewer than 3,300 beds were available. The campus plans to house hundreds of additional students in the coming years.

In the meantime, Gonzalez’s frantic housing search ended off campus. She found a room 30 minutes from campus for $800 a month — within her budget, but expensive enough that she will likely need a second job to afford rent and groceries. “It’s going to be hard this next year to manage my money,” she said.

A push into housing at CSU

California State University has a long history of serving predominantly commuter students, though the university system has made major investments in student housing over the past two decades. Federal data show CSU has almost doubled its capacity to house students since 2004.

CSU’s housing program nonetheless continues to trail the University of California system, which today houses 40% of students. That’s more than 120,000 students in UC housing compared to roughly 60,000 across CSU. A majority of students in both systems live off campus.

CSU argues that adding more university housing will boost students’ academic performance. Officials point to evidence from San Diego State University, which found students living on campus had higher graduation rates and grade point averages as well as lower rates of academic probation compared to their off-campus peers. Researchers have documented similar positive effects in other states, too.

San José State University’s Spartan Village on the Paseo converted an existing hotel into student housing. Credit: San José State University/Robert Bain

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Robert Bain

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San José State University

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Another concern is cost. University officials said they strive to keep student housing affordable relative to peer institutions and nearby market-rate units.

In 2024, the CSU-wide average rate for a two-person unit in a residence hall was $9,668 over an academic year. Cal Poly Humboldt hosted the cheapest doubles, charging $6,624 on average, while San Diego State’s $14,344 average was the system’s most expensive.

If lawmakers and then voters approve a bond measure, housing projects would likely compete with the university system’s substantial deferred maintenance needs. The potential construction boom could also be dampened by a dreary economic outlook for CSU, which faces a $2.3 billion budget gap.

Such financial constraints are top of mind for Kamran Garcia Hosseinzadeh, a recent graduate and resident assistant of Cal State Dominguez Hills. CSUDH plans to add hundreds of additional beds to campus by 2026, but Garcia Hosseinzadeh is skeptical that the university has the capacity and the funding to operate expanded housing. “I definitely don’t feel confident with the future of housing here,” they said.

Declining enrollment at some CSU campuses adds to the financial uncertainty. Systemwide, 92% of student housing is filled, but at shrinking campuses like Sonoma State University and CSU East Bay, where only 64% and 58% of housing, respectively, was occupied in fall 2024.

Another Cal State campus has struggled to recover from a pandemic-era downturn in housing occupancy. Auditors reported that years of operating losses in Cal State L.A.’s housing program are depleting its reserves. Occupancy has dropped to as low as 60% in recent years, auditors said, and student housing required “unanticipated emergency repairs.” Responding to the audit, Cal State L.A.’s director of housing wrote that the university had taken “sweeping corrective measures” to improve campus housing.

University officials at other Cal State campuses said they’re confident there is room to grow on their campuses, despite warnings of an impending decline in traditional college-aged students. Even if student headcount plateaus, they said, housing wait lists and other metrics suggest untapped potential to bring students who are forced to search for off-campus housing into on-campus dorms.

An experiment in San Luis Obispo

With almost 9,000 on-campus beds, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is the housing heavyweight of the Cal State system. A large majority of the university’s students are from outside county lines, so many of the roughly 14,000 students living off campus spill into residential neighborhoods, where their sheer numbers threaten to drive already expensive rents even higher.

The housing market near the Central Coast campus is so pricey — average rent is 31% higher than the national average, according to Zillow Rentals data — students on a budget sometimes lease less-than-ideal accommodations.

Jordan Schleifer, a recent graduate who led several housing-related initiatives while vice president of Cal Poly Democrats, said many such dwellings lack basic safety fixtures like fire escapes or working smoke detectors. “It creates a situation where students are living in unsafe conditions and they can’t be fixed because they don’t want to lose the housing,” Schleifer said.

And enrollment-wise, San Luis Obispo’s master plan projects that the student headcount will increase from 22,400 in fall 2024 to 25,000 by 2035.

A rendering of a modular student housing project planned for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

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FullStack Modular

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Financial limitations have forced San Luis Obispo’s leaders to get creative. Eager to save on construction costs — and to avoid passing those costs onto students — the university has converted some double-occupancy dorms into triples.

But the university’s most ambitious experiment is just starting. Next fall, the university will install the first in a series of modular, factory-built housing units, aiming to add as many as 4,000 beds over several years. Housing modules will get trucked to campus and then “stacked on top of each other like Legos,” said Mike McCormick, the university’s vice president of facilities management and development.

The hope is that as the factory starts producing modules at scale, the cost to produce each one will drop below traditional on-site construction. “We’re a long way from having this be a really efficient process yet, but you have to start somewhere,” McCormick said.

Lawmakers weigh student housing policy

Reports of college students living in their cars and surveys revealing the scale of student homelessness have prompted state lawmakers to take a more aggressive approach to student housing in recent years.

Typically, CSU finances housing by issuing bonds. But California lawmakers took a more active role in 2021 when they established a $2.2 billion grant program to help fund housing across CSU, UC and community colleges.

A dozen projects at CSU have been named grant recipients to date. Altogether, the projects are expected to add 5,000 beds to campuses from Cal Poly Humboldt to San Diego State. The grants provided about $660 million, which was nearly half the cost of 12 CSU projects, while the system provided the rest.

Some of that housing is now open to students. That includes a 729-bed project at San Francisco State University and San José State University’s Spartan Village on the Paseo, which converted an existing hotel into student housing.

Students move into San Francisco State’s new West Grove Commons residence hall.

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Now that the state grant funding has been awarded, advocates, including the Student Homes Coalition, have turned their attention to a bill aimed at spurring more off-campus housing by creating “campus development zones,” where the review process for housing development projects would be streamlined.

The other option, the state facilities bond AB 48, passed the Assembly and is currently in the Senate. Details, including a dollar figure, would be finalized in spring 2026 in hopes of putting the bond on the November ballot.

“The decision to send someone to college or not can literally depend on whether there’s affordable housing for them in those communities,” Alvarez said. “And so we want to make sure that there is something there, throughout our state, for families who want to send their kids to college.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.