Scrambling for housing within pilgrimage distance of work and school is a college tradition most students would probably prefer to bypass. The choices for off-campus living arrangements can be a crapshoot, at best, for a transient population. Long Beach's rental inventory is nearly maxed out. Any drywall box that doesn't require good luck, deep pockets - or the promise of an organ donation - to move in is long gone.
To those on the waiting list for now-closed-for-fall Cal State Long Beach residency, good luck. Housing's website reports that deposits will be returned to the unlucky souls who won't get on-campus housing. That's small condolence in mid-July, but the "just under 2,000" beds are sold out.
CSULB could ease some pressures for numerous future students if it buys nearby Brooks College, as reported in the July 12 Summer Forty-Niner. Buying renovated prime real estate and converting it into a student residential park could pay dividends.
CSULB President F. King Alexander said in May the university's 35,000-plus student population will expand by more than 6,000 this fall. He predicts continued growth of approximately 2 percent through the 2010-2011 academic year. His concern for student-friendly housing, both on- and off-campus, is a realistic one. Increasing CSULB's student housing availability should be the administrative priority.
Officials expect California to experience a population boom for the next five decades. The state Department of Finance predicted earlier in July the state population will grow by more than 75 percent, exploding to nearly 60 million people by 2050.
While it's only guesswork, if Long Beach's population even doubles over the next 50 years, there won't be much room to wiggle, let alone to sleep or study. The city has no developable land. The only expandable area remaining is sky, as witnessed by ongoing and planned vertical expansions.
On-campus living doesn't offer optimum affordability. Students at CSULB will pay $6,791 to $7,529 for the upcoming academic year, depending on meal plans. That's roughly what a semi-decent single-room apartment in the city can cost, without utilities and chow.
Being an off-campus landlord isn't a new invention. CSULB, as do most academic institutions worth their salt, holds other properties. Its co-developed technology park project with the city is proving to be a hit with high-tech tenants.
If the Brooks deal clears the "due diligence" stage, and the infrastructure is up to snuff, converting the parcel could be a sound investment. Transforming it to student housing would cost much less than replacing the existing buildings.
It's inevitable some students will have to settle for overpriced, hole-in-the-wall living spaces because that's all they can find. Creating more elbowroom for students should move to the top of the university's to do list.
Slapping the CSULB label on Brooks College could be a sound venture. Using it to relieve the student housing deficit, if even mildly, would be practical.
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