A sports field off Cabrillo College Drive near Highway 1 is expected to be redeveloped into a housing project for Cabrillo and UC Santa Cruz students. (Cabrillo College/Jones Lang LaSalle IP)

APTOS >> Cabrillo College trustees on Nov. 4 are expected to select a developer for a 625-bed student housing proposal on one of the college’s soccer fields.

If Cabrillo trustees and the California Division of the State Architect approve the project, construction could start as soon as November 2025 and finish in 2027, said Cabrillo College President Matt Wetstein. About 60% of the tenants are expected to be Cabrillo students and families, and 40% would be UC Santa Cruz students, Wetstein said Oct. 24.

“The housing crunch in this community is brutal,” Wetstein said. “It’s way too costly for our staff and faculty, but for students, it’s even more acute. So helping to solve that problem and developing incredibly low-cost rent units for our students is a bigger problem to be solved right now,” he said. 

A student housing feasibility study from 2023 described dormitories, apartments and family housing in the Cabrillo proposal. It also described:

• A four-story building with three wings, 271 housing units and 624 beds. 
• A daycare center in the complex. 
• No new parking spaces.

Wetstein said this month that the project could be four or five stories tall and have 625 units.

“Depending on which developer we go with, there will be between 20 and 25 family units for students with children,” Wetstein said. “There will also be a child care center included in the construction costs as well, so about 50 kids ranging from infants to toddlers could be at the on-site center,” he said.

Part of a sports field at Cabrillo College is expected to be redeveloped into student housing. (Tyler Maldonado — Santa Cruz Local file)

The project’s price tag was estimated at $181.7 million in 2023. Cabrillo representatives won a state grant fall in 2023 to fund it. Cabrillo is expected to receive $111.7 million from the grant while UCSC is expected to contribute $70 million.

Cabrillo trustees are slated to choose between two developers at their Nov. 4 meeting. 

Cabrillo has no campus housing for its roughly 11,000 students, though its staff helps students find places to live and offers some grants for move-in costs. At least 11 of the state’s 116 community colleges offer campus housing in places like Eureka, Costa Mesa and Redding.

Many Cabrillo students have trouble finding affordable places to live, according to a 2021 study by the consultant Jones Lang LaSalle IP Inc. It found a demand for about 300 beds among Cabrillo students — including some students with spouses and children.

In Cabrillo College’s region, about 20% of community college students said they were homeless, according to a 2021 study. Most of those students temporarily stayed with a relative or friend.

“I hear on a daily basis from my constituents about the hardships they face when it comes to housing in Santa Cruz County,” wrote State Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, in a 2023 statement. Laird helped secure the state grant for Cabrillo’s housing project. 

“Students are having to make really difficult choices about how or if they can continue their education in our community. That is why I have been dogged in ensuring the Higher Education Student Housing Grant Program was supported in a way that recognizes the economic burdens countless students face in not only our region, but California as a whole,” Laird wrote.

A student housing project is proposed on Cabrillo College Drive near Highway 1. (Cabrillo College/Jones Lang LaSalle IP)

Soccer and housing

The development location is planned to replace one of Cabrillo’s soccer fields where the Santa Cruz Breakers youth soccer league plays. 

“That’s one of the unfortunate things of addressing the housing problem in this site is that it ends up forcing these leagues to find a home while we try to work on a future solution,” Wetstein said. “I would say student housing is a much bigger problem than allowing recreation on our field,” Wetstein said.

Cabrillo College Trustee Adam Spickler said it is important for recreational sports teams to have a space to play. While Cabrillo is losing one soccer field, there are other places to play, Spickler said.

“When people are put out with something like this, there’s usually a lot of energy that goes into finding alternatives and making workable alternatives happen,” Spickler said. “However, we are in a situation in our county where it is far more difficult to get unhoused people into housing than it is to find alternative spaces for recreational sports.”

Read more

• Cabrillo College housing proposal seeks state money — Feb. 14, 2023
• Cabrillo College student housing — Last updated October 2024

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