CORRECTION: An earlier graphic did not meet our publication standards
To support its students, LBCC launched a program in 2021 that provides access to showers for students experiencing homelessness.
This is a tremendous step in supporting their students and other community colleges nationwide should follow LBCC’s example.
To make this happen, citizens and community college students should raise their concerns to local governments and to the city council to demand more funding for programs at colleges that support homeless students and address difficulties that might get in the way of their learning.
LBCC’s shower program allows any enrolled student to come to the LAC Veteran Stadium locker rooms and take 15-minute showers daily.
Given that 58% of community college students experience housing insecurity, and 20% are homeless, according to a 2025 survey by the Community College League of California, this program addresses a very real need of the community.
Additionally, California passed a law in 2016 known as AB-1995, which requires that California community colleges open their shower facilities to homeless students. This law is rarely found in other states across the U.S..
Many California community colleges already have food pantries, as according to an article by AFMC, a nonprofit organization focused on health and wellness, nearly 800 colleges and universities in the U.S. have food pantries.
Given that many college students struggle to get food consistently, this is a very beneficial resource.
However, this food resource doesn’t help students with other difficulties related to being homeless such as not having a roof over their head, having access to showers and even receiving hostility from people.
Homeless people often don’t receive aid from the government due to limited access and a high demand for it. This can be seen in California by the rise in homelessness over the past few years, as recorded by Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research. There were around 160,000 homeless people in California in 2020, but that number rose to around 180,000 in 2023.
Homeless people are often further discouraged by obstacles such as hostile architecture, including modified benches to prevent people from sleeping on them.
Having one’s basic needs met is a necessary prerequisite to one’s learning. It’s much harder to pursue a degree if you have to spend more time looking for places to shower or sleep than you have to study.
While most schools want to help their students, they only have so much time and resources available to allocate to these support systems. Therefore, if more citizens went to the local government who manages the school’s budget and advocated for more funding, we can make a change.
One way to do this is to voice your needs and the needs of others around you who you know are dealing with housing insecurity, either by sending written or electronic mail to your local government.
Additionally, students can advocate for themselves to legislative bodies such as city councils. The names and phone numbers of all city council members can be found here.
For students to succeed, they need to have access to the resources needed for stable home lives. Therefore, if we advocate for community colleges to have more funding, we could have more colleges across the nation follow LBCC’s shower program and provide more basic needs to students to support their education.
At LBCC, dorms are projected to be finished in Fall of 2028, but this housing opportunity is a rare one across the nation. If community colleges had more support, they could become places where students could thrive in, in all aspects of their life not just educationally.
