The vast majority of California’s college students, faculty, and staff rely on a limited number of unaffordable and inaccessible off-campus housing units. New housing projects near colleges can be difficult to develop due to restrictive local zoning policies. Existing streamlining laws fall short of achieving the scale needed to address the student housing crisis, and often prevent low-income students from being eligible for affordable units. 

AB 893 creates a streamlined, ministerial review process for mixed-income housing projects located on commercially zoned land in “campus development zones,” or the area within a one-mile radius of a college campus. To qualify, a development must also set a portion of its units at an affordable rent. Students will be able to qualify for deed-restricted units based on Cal Grant, Promise Grant, and Pell Grant eligibility. 

AB 893 is currently in progress in the California State Assembly.