Editorial of May 8, 2025

Are Vehicles the New Housing?

A bill authored by Democratic Assemblymember Corey Jackson currently under consideration by the California Assembly, if passed, would allow college students to live in their vehicles because they can’t find affordable housing. Roughly three out of five of the state’s community college students are housing insecure, according to a survey conducted in 2023 by the Community College League of California—one in four experiences homelessness.

California Assembly Bill 90 (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB90) would require community college districts “to adopt a plan to offer an overnight parking program to eligible students, as defined, and would require the plan to be developed in consultation with basic needs coordinators and campus security, as specified. The bill would require the plan to include, among other things, a procedure for issuing an overnight parking permit. The bill would impose duties on basic needs coordinators related to the community college programs, including when acceptance of applications from eligible students would begin.”