SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A package of reforms meant to address San Diego's housing crisis failed in City Council Monday night. One proposal would have helped create student housing around all college campuses.
It would've made a difference for City College student Julio Martinez Valle. He says it takes him two hours to commute to school from his home in Tijuana.
“I can’t pay tuition and pay rent at the same time,” Martinez Valle said.
Some days he says he prefers to sleep in his car.
“Imagine a world in which you could just drive two minutes to get to school.”
“That would be the perfect world. That would be utopia,” Martinez Valle said.
It also would've helped his classmate Dayanara Amparo who can barely afford to live in a one bedroom apartment with her mom, boyfriend, and her baby.
“The rent is going to be going up every year where I live," Amparo said.
In addition to school work, paying rent is a top concern for San Diego college students. On Monday night, City Council members discussed a housing package that would've allowed more affordable housing near San Diego college campuses. UC San Diego student Nicole Lillie showed up alongside others to voice her support.
“We had over 80 comments submitted prior, which is a lot during midterm season. We showed up because it is just that urgent.”
But ultimately a majority of council members rejected the package because of some disagreements unrelated to the student housing portion.
“We really hope City Council continues to see the urgency that youth are bringing.”
The City says this package will go through another round of amendments before they vote on it again next year. In a statement to 10News, the City's planning department wrote:
“College and higher-education students are part of the fabric of our communities and play an important role in our region, but so many are housing insecure. Allowing the development of private student housing developments in transit-rich areas and near universities and promoting the construction of homes ensures that students can afford to live and thrive here, and even perhaps put their roots down when they graduate."
