In a recent survey to Santa Rosa Junior College students, 30% of the students indicated that they were considering leaving school and the area because of the lack and high cost of housing. One in five of the college’s students struggle with “housing insecurity,” meaning they are homeless or couch surfing – not knowing where they will sleep the next night or next week.
The student housing crisis was jeopardizing its students’ ability to learn and study, negatively impacting their health, and causing students to leave school and even the area. In early fall 2017, the college’s leadership decided to explore building its own student housing community on its own donated land. That exploration took on added urgency after 617 SRJC students lost their homes in the 2017 Sonoma Complex wildfires.
The college engaged Servitas, which specializes in student housing, as the developer in April 2019. Servitas and the college’s team finalized a design for a 413-unit apartment building with a mix of units intended for one to six students, along with shared kitchens, great rooms, and study rooms.
Affordability was the college’s number one goal. SRJC Vice President of Student Services, Pedro Avila, the college’s point person on the project, explained that while some universities see student housing as an income stream, the college is “trying to pass as much of the savings and revenue directly back to the student to keep rents below market.” But housing construction, particularly in Sonoma County, is expensive, and it’s difficult to make projects “pencil” (profitable or at the very least, break even) with below-market rates.
Affordable housing is almost always financed in one of two ways: first, by using a complicated federal tax credit mechanism; or second, by including a few units in a market-rate project, the market-rate units essentially subsidizing the affordable units. But after jumping through the series of hoops required to apply for federal tax credits, the college learned that those credits could not be used for housing restricted to students. This left the college with no other option but traditional private market bond financing through a public-private partnership. The combination of traditional financing, a commitment to honoring prevailing wages and using local labor, and the more stringent building code requirements imposed on educational institutions by the Division of State Architects, brought the project price tag from $42M to $51M.
Still, the college’s team did everything they could to find cost savings to keep rents low, like narrowing the hallway and reducing the amount of glass. “We had to compromise on some of the original design,” Avila explained, adding, “we still feel very good about what we have to offer our students.”
Some of the rent amounts are below market rate, but all are well below market rate once the amenities are included; each unit is fully furnished with all utilities, Internet, and laundry paid.
The college and the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation are committed to ensuring that the most vulnerable students can afford their housing. With the help of an angel donor, the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation established an endowment to fund a robust rental assistance program focused on assisting low income students, foster youth, and students experiencing homelessness. There are still a number of naming opportunities that will provide long-term funding for students and programs utilizing the physical building while also recognizing the generosity of the contributing individual, family, or organization.
Gen H applauds the Santa Rosa Junior College for undertaking this bold, collaborative project, a true public-private partnership, to provide more and more affordable housing options for its students.