The Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees has a decision to make, and not much time to make it.
According to Jasmine Ruys, assistant superintendent of student services for the district, which oversees College of the Canyons, the state is looking to issue the statewide lease revenue bonds to the 13 districts that were selected to receive the funds for building low-income student housing “soon.”
When asked at last week’s regular board meeting for a more exact timeline, Ruys said the board would likely have to choose whether to move forward in the next month or two.
“The reason I say that is because the lease revenue bonds, they are talking about wanting to release those quite quickly,” Ruys said. “Once they release those to us, we are going to be given a deadline to say, ‘Are you taking these or not?’ So I don’t think we have a year to study it to determine it.”
The next board meeting is set for Sept. 11.
The district previously had been approved to receive grant funding for low-income student housing, but the state switched the funding to lease revenue bonds, which work similar to a house mortgage, according to Jason Hinkle, interim assistant superintendent of business services.
“Instead of giving $800 million out of pocket to the districts, they’re now doing it at about $70 million a year over time,” Hinkle said.
Ruys and Ann Volz, owner of the Volz Co., which has been consulting with the district on the project, designed by architectural firm Westburg White, delivered the presentation outlining how much it will cost to build the project and the costs and revenues associated with running a housing project.
The three-story building, expected to be built on parking lot six and cover 91,000 square feet, would have a common space that includes a laundry room, mail room, study areas, a game room, offices, a lecture room and other amenities.
According to Ruys, the district has three options: stick with the original plan of having 209 beds, which would likely cost $67 million, roughly $5 million more than originally projected; scale back to have fewer beds to stay within the $62 million in state funding; or stop the project and send the money back to the state, less any interest and what has already been spent.
Should the board choose to stop the project, the district would keep the plans and could possibly get the money back in the future and would have four years to build once the plans are approved by the Division of the State Architect.
Should the project go through, the college would need to put up property as collateral, Volz said, with the Takeda Science Center and the Student Service Learning Resource Center at the Canyon Country campus both identified as suggested collateral.
The numbers
Calling the project one of the steps to COC becoming a 24/7 campus, Volz said there are plenty of assumptions that would need to be met for the project to work.
One is that the 209 beds would need to be filled completely, or close to it, for the revenues to match up to the costs. Each bed would cost roughly $8,540 per year, Volz said, with Ruys adding that bad debt has been built into the assumptions due to possible vacancies.
That cost per bed includes all staffing expenses — one general manager, one live-in residence director, four part-time residence advisors, three and a half campus safety officers, one maintenance worker and two custodians, as well some other overhead costs — for a 12-month lease.
Monthly rent would range from $708 to $885, and students would have to earn no more than 30% of 50% of the area median income to qualify. Each room would have a kitchen, but a dining hall, as seen at dorms across the country, would not be part of the project.
Should the board choose to not spend the extra $5 million, Ruys said the district would need to further study how that would impact revenues and costs.
For now, should all assumptions hold true with 209 beds, the district would expect to bring in a little more than $2 million per year in gross income while expending about $1.95 million in the first year.
After factoring in a reserve fund, there would be about $9,400 in leftover income after the first year.
The need
Sanjana Sudhir, the student trustee, said if even 100 students could be housed, the project could be seen as a success.
“Student housing is something that a lot of us have been talking about, and I know a lot of my friends don’t have homes when they go back from classes, and this is just a project that I feel that I’m so grateful that COC is looking at,” she said. “Even though we may not have the funds right now and we may need to reduce beds at least, at least for 100 students, if we can provide them a home and if we can provide them a warm place to sleep, that would be satisfactory for me.”
Ruys said the district does work with some of the local organizations, such as Bridge to Home, but there is typically a greater need than what they can supply.
Board member Sebastian Cazares said the board should seriously consider its options as he knows from being a former COC student that the need is there.
“I’m in support of making this happen, even if it is at the cap of $62 million, but then having consultation with Superintendent (David) Andrus to see where we’re at,” Cazares said, adding that all groups on campus should be consulted with to gauge just how much of a problem this would solve.
Ruys added that a housing feasibility study that was conducted in 2021 was for 1,400 beds, so “so we definitely could fill 209 beds very easily,” and that there are a fair number of students sleeping in their cars on campus already who would benefit from a real place to live.
