News

Monday, March 18, 2019

By allocating $1 million last week toward a creek restoration project set to rejuvenate threatened and endangered species and reduce flooding in Pescadero, county officials locked in funding needed to begin a dredging effort experts expect will give the Butano Creek a chance to reset.

Also backed by California State Parks and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the project to re-establish more than a mile of the Butano Creek channel, remove 45,000 cubic yards of sediment and restore more than 10 miles of habitat for steelhead trout and coho salmon has been a focus for Supervisor Don Horsley, landowners, government agencies and community organizations for years.

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Thursday, March 14, 2019

Since starting school last fall, Sacramento City College student Shae Fox has slept, studied and lived in her car twice. She recently moved into an apartment and is now waiting on her financial aid money to be processed in order to pay rent. But she’s worried about keeping a roof over her head.

“I can’t catch a break,” Fox said. “I just want to unpack my stuff somewhere. I just want to call a place my home. I want to get mail somewhere.”

A new survey released this month suggests Fox is not the only student going through this experience: 19 percent of community college students in California have faced homelessness in the past year.

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Monday, March 11, 2019

For a growing number of community college students in California, one of the biggest concerns isn’t exams or essays—it’s finding a safe place to sleep in their cars at night.

An estimated 20 percent of the state’s 2.1 million community college students have experienced homelessness or don’t have a stable place to live, according to a report released this month by California Community Colleges. Many of them rely on their vehicles for shelter.

“The most difficult thing about sleeping in your car is trying to find a place to park and sleep, and being able to sleep comfortably knowing that no one’s going to come by, that neighbors aren’t walking by saying, ‘Who’s sleeping out there?” said Brianna Rodriguez, a former student at East Los Angeles College who previously experienced homelessness. 

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Monday, March 11, 2019

Nineteen percent of students attending California’s community college system have experienced homelessness in the last year, while 60 percent have experienced recent housing insecurity and 50 percent have struggled with food insecurity, according to a report released Thursday, March 7.

The study, conducted by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University’s College of Education in Philadelphia, surveyed nearly 40,000 students at 57 community colleges during the fall semesters of 2016 and 2018.

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Monday, March 11, 2019

STANDING TALL ... Palo Alto resident Christine Blasey Ford, who has become known for going public with her sexual-assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has been selected as the 24th Assembly District's Woman of the Year, state Assemblyman Marc Berman's office announced on Monday. Ford, 52, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University, was picked for her "remarkable act of courage" in testifying about her claims before the Senate Judiciary Committee in late September. "Dr. Ford exhibited strength and dignity under the most extraordinary conditions, and in telling her truth, she paved the way for countless other survivors to tell their own," Berman said in a statement. Ford is currently not teaching classes at the university, but is continuing to conduct biostatistics research and work with doctoral students.

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Thursday, March 7, 2019

For Anthony Phillip White II, being in community college while homeless was exhausting, embarrassing — and eventually unrealistic.

Just out of a four-year stint in the Marines, White moved to Oceanside in 2014 to attend MiraCosta College. A single father, he planned to share a home with friends and his then-5-year-old son Trey as he sought to become the first in his family to earn a college degree.

But the house didn’t work out, and his part-time job in a camera store didn’t pay enough for a place of his own. Trey had to stay with his mother in Nebraska, and White moved into his Chevy Silverado, working during the day, taking classes in the evening and searching out safe places to park at night. After eight months in the truck, with help from a veterans group, he got an apartment and got his son back. But trying to parent and pay bills while still making it to class was too hard.

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Tuesday, March 5, 2019

California’s housing crisis has left hundreds of thousands of community college students either homeless or facing the threat of being homeless.

A new California State Assembly bill offers a potential remedy — letting students sleep in their vehicles in campus parking lots and structures.

Assembly Bill 302, sponsored by Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, would require the California Community College system to make their college parking system accessible overnight to any enrolled student in good standing. State law already requires that community colleges provide homeless students with access to shower facilities on campus.

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