Staff Reports
In the realm of California’s ever-expanding legislative imagination, the newest trend is something that sounds like it was dreamt up in a satire club meeting: allowing homeless college students to shack up in their cars to tackle the state’s housing crisis. The brainchild of a Democrat assembly member, this proposal aims to create overnight parking programs with access to basic needs and campus security. So, students can now learn not just in classrooms but also in their dorms-on-wheels. California is part progressive utopia, part dystopian drive-thru.
This innovative-or, or should we say desperate — approach to housing skips over any attempt to tackle the stratospheric cost of college itself. Rather than rolling back tuition fees to a point where students can afford both education and housing, the state’s lawmakers are content with turning parking lots into temporary homes. It’s truly a marvel of modern-day governance. After all, why bother addressing the root of the problem when you can just shove students into the back seats of their vehicles and call it a day?
The plan, in all its glory, seems less about solving a crisis and more about patting themselves on the back for creativity in crisis-making. When housing becomes unattainable due to ill-conceived policies, the solution is to let students live in their cars and pretend it’s all about maintaining freedom and choice. Who needs a warm, cozy dorm when you can have your very own cramped Corolla condo?
Of course, with this move, there’s the gleeful allowance for a whole host of other unforeseen “opportunities” — like turning cars into sitting ducks for opportunistic thieves. Why pull a late-night cram session in the library when you can nervously clutch your steering wheel and enjoy the thrill of wondering if tonight’s the night your muffler goes missing? It’s an adventure in every sense of the word.
At the core of this parking lot paradox lies the “ultimate Democrat move” — creating solutions that look busy but manage little. Instead of taking a hard look at why students are taking on mountains of debt for a degree without a job, the state seems content to dish out temporary fixes that don’t deliver long-term answers. But as far as California lawmakers are concerned, if your education comes with a set of wheels and a side of disillusionment, you’re all set.
