College of the Canyons Scraps $62 Million Student Housing Project

 

By Tim Haddock

02/21/2025 at 8:44 PM

 

The College of the Canyons Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to abandon a $62 million low-income student housing project, citing financial risks and funding shortfalls. Despite initial efforts to revive the plan, concerns over construction costs and the need to use college buildings as collateral ultimately led to its rejection.

 

 

VALENCIA – The College of the Canyons board of trustees voted during a meeting Feb. 12 to stop pursuing funds for a low-income student housing project on campus.

 

It was an about-face to an attempt to recoup $62 million in funding for the project that was previously refused.

 

The Santa Clarita Community College District board has three new members. They were voted into office in November.

 

The previous board voted to turn down a $62 million grant from the state to explore and begin a student housing project on campus. But the previous board ultimately decided it was too expensive and too risky to continue.

 

When the new board met for the first time in January, it decided to revisit the project and voted to see if the funds could be returned to the college.

 

But in a 4-1 vote during the meeting earlier this month, the board decided to drop the project under the advisement of the interim college chancellor and the assistant superintendent of student services.

 

Newly elected board member Fred Arnold was the lone vote to keep the project alive. The other board members decided the plan is too risky and will end up costing the college too much money in the long run.

 

In a meeting in January, the board voted 3-2 to rescind a letter to refuse accepting the money for the housing project. 

Board President Sharlene Johnson, Arnold and Darlene Trevino voted in favor of it. Edel Alonso and Carlos Guerrero voted against it.

 

Alonso and Guerrero were on the board when the decision was made to refuse the money in October. Alonso, who was the board president at the time, said it was a fiscally conservative decision that didn’t commit the college to a project that might end up costing more than estimated.

 

Johnson, Trevino and Arnold are newly elected trustee members. They were in favor of moving forward with a project to provide housing for students.

 

But new district chancellor and interim college president David Andrus said deciding to accept the funds for student housing was premature and the college needs to develop a plan first to fully fund the project before accepting the money.

 

He also advised the board it might be too late to ask for the money back. Once it was returned, he did not know if it was possible to ask for it to be returned.

 

Another option the board discussed was the possibility of using housing units at California Institute of the Arts for College of the Canyons students. Cal Arts has dorms available for its students on its campus.

 

The grant for the housing project came from the Affordable Student Housing Grant and was supposed to provide funds for the first phase of the project. That funding was later restructured from a grant to lease-revenue bonds.

 

That change requires the college to put up multiple buildings as collateral and make other revisions in regard to the size and cost of the housing facility. Those revisions, as indicated in the agenda for the board of trustees meeting on Jan. 31, include: 

Due to an increase in construction costs, the funding provided would no longer allow the college to build the same size facility as originally presented in 2021. The college had worked with architects to design a 209-bed facility, the cost of which would have exceeded the $61.8 million that was budgeted for the project. If the college were to go through with the 209-bed facility, funds would need to be raised or general fund money would need to be used to cover the cost of the increase, estimated at $5 million.

 

The college could descope the facility to come in under the $61.8 million, which would mean fewer beds and fewer amenities for students. The operating costs would exceed the amount that would be generated through rents. Since rent is not a factor that can be increased due to it being low-income, the college would have to budget general funds to cover the annual costs of the building. 

 

The board and the college did not want to utilize two buildings as collateral for the lease revenue bonds. The original grant was awarded to the college through an application process, and did not require the college to work with multiple state entities through a lease revenue bond. 

 

Arnold suggested at the meeting on Feb. 12 the College of the Canyons Foundation could help close the gap in funding for the project. While $62 million is a large sum, it doesn’t cover all the costs for the project. It also requires using existing buildings and properties at the college as collateral.

 

Jasmine Ruys, assistant superintendent of student services at College of the Canyons, said the college would still be short to fund the project completely and she didn’t want the college to be in a position to have to remove students from housing. 

 

“It’s millions of dollars that we’re short. And on top of that, we don’t want to put ourselves in a place where we have to kick these students out,” Ruys told The Signal, adding there are very few alternatives for homeless students.

 

Ruys said she didn’t want to refuse the money, but it was the responsible thing to do.

 

“And it kills me to say that I have to return $62 million. That’s a ton of money,” she said. “It is not a ton of money when you’re talking about student housing, when you’re talking about affordable housing. It is not.”