The shortage of affordable housing and its impact on Orange County was the topic of an Affordable Housing Summit held recently on campus.
The Nov. 17 summit at the Titan Student featured a panel discussion among elected officials, university officials, housing experts and affordable-housing advocates.
CSUF President Sylvia Alva, who moderated the discussion, noted that 50% of the university’s 323,000 alumni live and work within a 50-mile radius of the university.
“Today’s topic is very fitting and very important in that statistic in that one of the things that we want to do is ensure that once our students graduate, that they can afford, that they can afford to stay and contribute to the future of this region,” Alva said. “And so, today’s conversation is an opportunity to think about affordable housing or the lack thereof, and what we can do together as a university in partnership with the community.”
Panelists included District 67 Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, Becks Heyhoe, executive director of United to End Homelessness, Kelsey Brewer, vice president of business development for Jamboree Housing Corp. and Vincent Vigil, senior vice president for student affairs and dean of students at CSUF.
Affordable housing can be defined as housing that meets the needs of individuals and families; incomes aren’t sufficient to pay current market prices, Brewer said.
“For us, that’s seniors,” Brewer said. “We have thousands and thousands of units of affordable senior housing for folks that maybe couldn’t afford the higher-end, luxury senior communities, but still need access to high-quality housing with wraparound services that support them as they transition and age in place.”
But many working families are also in need of affordable housing, she said.
“It’s your teachers, it’s your teacher’s assistants, it’s your nurses’ aides, it’s your dental hygienists,” Brewer said. “It’s the people who do your nails, work at…
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