Legislature Passes Bill Creating Student Housing Program

This afternoon, the Legislature passed SB 169, the higher education budget trailer bill that creates the new state student housing program. The bill now goes to the Governor for his action. The Department of Finance indicated that there was support from the Administration on this and other budget trailer bills taken up today, so we are hopeful of good news shortly.

Click here for a detailed summary of the new $2 billion Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program.

SB 169 allocates 50% of the available funds over the three-year program to community colleges. While the bill includes a number of details, there are a few key questions related to immediate implementation, such as:

• What is the state/local share under the new program? This information is needed to do the affordability calculation that is required as part of a proposal. It is unclear if the program is intended to fund 100% of the costs of construction, or if it will fund a share, with a local match.
• Can the program be used to fund rehabilitation/expansion of existing student housing facilities?
• What is the proposal process, and when will the application be available? Will proposals be sent directly to the Department of Finance?

CCFC will seek the answers to these and other questions, and we’ll keep you updated as the process unfolds.

Rebekah Cearley
CCFC Legislative Advocate