FRC finalizing grant application for additional student housing
Feather River College (FRC) is finalizing a grant application to provide additional student housing on campus and help provide part of a much-needed solution to the Plumas County housing crisis. FRC received $348,000 as a 2022-23 California Community College Chancellor’s Office Planning Grant to study and submit the Affordable Student Housing Grant application due in January 2023. If approved, this Chancellor’s Office grant will fully fund a 126-bed student-housing unit on the FRC campus. The planning grant provides for initial site analysis, full cost estimation, and 50 percent schematic design architectural plans.
“We are very excited about this opportunity, but have had to do a lot of work up until this point in terms of maximizing our value for this project and our community,” said Superintendent/President Dr. Kevin Trutna. “Our goal is to be as cost-effective as possible with the fully funded State project when it comes to maximizing our number of beds for dollars spent. The student housing project is designed as an option for FRC students that does not compete with existing affordable housing options in Plumas County.”
As it stands, FRC cannot meet the housing needs for current and future students with existing housing inventory which has been impacted by the recent fires affecting the rental market in Quincy and surrounding areas. The College has added two student-housing units since 2014, yet still cannot meet the student housing demand. As a result, students are turned away from FRC due to a lack of student housing availability.
Although this is only the beginning phases of planning, this grant provides FRC the ability to perform a much-needed analysis on the county’s current housing situation. Moreover, while this new student-housing unit is not the ultimate solution, it is part of a wider attempt at solving this local housing crisis.
Once the grant application is submitted, the College will await its approval before moving forward with any other planning. If the approval does happen, then a timeline for construction can be developed and shared with the community.
