Many California college students struggle to find affordable housing. Four new bills recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom could speed up the process of building student housing and reduce the cost for developers.
Newsom also signed a law earlier this month giving former foster youth and unhoused students priority for student housing. The law also allows those students to defer their student housing payment until they receive their financial aid.
“It’s really about a package of laws to try and handle the demand that exists for students,” said Assemblymember David A. Alvarez, a Democrat from San Diego and author of one of the laws, Assembly Bill 1732, the marquee bill of the package that exempts student housing projects from the California Environmental Quality Act.
Additionally, the laws include incentives for developers to build affordable housing. They also reduce obstacles to student housing projects by exempting them from local ordinances and blocking frivolous lawsuits.
Shaun Chilton, president of the Associated Students of Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, said he’s heard from students who say it’s difficult to find housing, and they sometimes cram together four to a room.
With the limited housing, San Luis Obispo can be an expensive place to live. A five-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot house near Cuesta College costs $12,000 a month to rent, according to rent.com, which also lists one-bedroom studios for $1,900 to $2,600 a month.
“We see a lot of uncomfortable housing situations at ridiculously high price points,” Chilton said.
All five laws were sponsored by the Student Homes Coalition. Four of them help developers overcome barriers to building more affordable student housing units. The coalition was started in 2022 by what outgoing coalition Chair Kate Rodgers described as a group of student “housing nerds” who saw a need for a pro-housing movement.
Student housing is “kinda seen as small potatoes” compared with larger statewide development problems, according to Rodgers, who is now the legislative director of California YIMBY in Sacramento.
“Our counterpoint as an organization to that is, the University of California and the California State University are far and away the largest public institutions that house people,” Rodgers said.
2025 laws are moving housing projects along
Both on- and off-campus student housing projects have faced multiple delays in the past due to zoning restrictions and lawsuits. Rodgers identified several projects that avoided similar issues thanks to new laws.
According to Rodgers, a UC Santa Barbara development that is underway did not have to meet California Coastal Commission minimum parking requirements thanks to a law signed in 2025 compelling the commission to defer to state or private colleges and universities when determining parking needs for residents of their housing projects.
Construction began in June and the university plans to move students in by fall 2028.
In another example, Santa Monica College and the Student Homes Coalition co-sponsored a successful bill in 2025 exempting California community colleges from local zoning requirements for student housing projects on land owned or leased by the college.
Now the college is moving forward with a project to house 750 students. It will be developed through a public-private partnership between Santa Monica Community College District and Michael’s Student Living.
Rodgers said Student Homes Coalition’s core strategy is to work with developers every step of the way when putting together bills to address developer-side construction costs and delays. “We do not want to be spending our time on something that is not going to produce units,” she said.
Student housing now exempt from CEQA review
As part of the latest round of new laws, the Student and Faculty Housing Opportunity Act adds public colleges and universities to a law passed last year allowing CEQA exemptions for affordable housing developments. However, because public university properties are under the jurisdiction of the state, they didn’t qualify for the exemption under that law.
CEQA requires local and state agencies to provide a report assessing the potential impacts of a large project on the environment and take steps to lessen those impacts. Developers can be sued over allegedly inadequate findings or mitigation measures in these reports, which can slow down or halt projects entirely. The exemption aims to streamline affordable housing projects.
Alvarez told CalMatters that this bill is intended to apply to on-campus housing projects at universities with adequate capacity.
“But some universities don’t have on-campus capacity, so they will be allowed to utilize this tool to streamline the construction of [housing] off campus,” he said.
Even with the CEQA exemption, developments remain open to litigation that can slow or stop them. Democratic state Sen. Angelique V. Ashby of Sacramento wrote Senate Bill 916, which will help prevent bad-faith lawsuits against student housing developments.
Current law allows courts to require a plaintiff to put up bond money for lawsuits against low- or moderate-income housing projects when a court finds the lawsuit frivolous or meant solely to slow or stop a project. The new law extends this same protection for student housing projects.
One new law, Assembly Bill 2118, streamlines the approval process for building mixed-income housing along commercial corridors. Another new law, Assembly Bill 2480, adds incentives for developers when they set aside part of their projects for affordable housing.
Currently, off-campus housing developments that set aside 20% of their units for low-income students qualify for these incentives, which include the ability to add more units and reduce parking. The new law gives even more incentives for dedicating at least 24% of the units for low-income students.
Foster youths, unhoused students get priority housing
Some of California’s most vulnerable college students, those who are unhoused or in the foster system, now have priority for on-campus student housing. Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 2766, adding the state’s community colleges to the list of campuses required to give priority housing to those students.
The bill also requires community colleges and Cal State campuses to identify eligible students via housing applications, advertise housing benefits on their websites, and defer fees and housing deposits until students receive their full financial aid.
They must also prioritize eligible students for the NextUp foster youth support program, which provides them support and can include housing.
More funding for affordable student housing will be on the California ballot this November. Proposition 1 would allow the state to borrow $11.25 billion in bonds to fund housing projects across California. Some of that would go to efforts such as student housing, tribal housing and farmworker housing.
Aaron Friesen and Anahid Valencia are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration with CalMatters.
The post How California is fast-tracking construction of much-needed college student housing appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
