Nineteen hours after leaving Coachella Valley, Oscar Deleon Jr. stepped off a bus with four bags of clothes, $800, admission to Chico State University, and no idea where he was going to live or work. All he knew was that he was taking his agriculture professor’s advice from College of the Desert and transferring to a university to continue his education.
He checked into a hotel. Two days later, at orientation, he learned about the Rapid Rehousing program at Chico State. The program’s community partner, True North Housing Alliance, a nonprofit that addresses homelessness in Butte County, paid for Deleon’s hotel bill. The university transferred Deleon to student housing for the school year and helped him secure financial aid to cover most of the cost.
“When I needed somewhere to go, they were willing to help me out, no questions asked. ‘Let’s get you situated,’ you know? You don’t forget that kind of help,” Deleon said.
Since the program launched in 2020, the College Focused Rapid Rehousing program has helped over 9,000 students facing housing insecurity or homelessness. Through partnering with local community-based organizations, Rapid Rehousing provides students with emergency housing, rental subsidies, case management and advising.
Rapid Rehousing operates at all 10 University of California campuses, 25 community colleges and 18 California State University campuses. Students in the program reported higher GPAs and improved mental health and nutrition, according to an evaluation of the program in 2025 by the Center for Equitable Higher Education at Cal State Long Beach. As of 2025, California spends $31 million annually on Rapid Rehousing programs in higher education. The governor’s proposed budget for 2026-27, released in January, also includes $31 million.
Rapid Rehousing came to the rescue
Following the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, Butte County lost over a third of its housing stock, impacting students at Chico State.
“A whole town was lost of housing,” said Emma Jewett, the senior basic needs case manager at Chico State. “Our students are often struggling to get housing and find sustainable housing as it is, because they don’t have the qualifying factors, such as making three times the rent.”
But students everywhere were having a hard time finding affordable housing. In 2018, 10.9% of 27,805 students surveyed across the Cal State system reported they had experienced homelessness in a Student Basic Needs survey commissioned by the chancellor’s office. In a separate survey of California community college students, 19% of nearly 40,000 respondents had experienced homelessness between 2016 and 2018.
Meanwhile, off-campus housing costs across the state increased by more than 30% between 2018 and 2022, according to California Competes, a research organization focused on higher education and workforce issues.
In response, the state Legislature included $10 million for a rapid rehousing pilot program in the state Budget Act of 2019, with $3.5 million going to UCs and $6.5 million to Cal States. Universities applied within their systems to receive grants to participate.
Chico State was one of the Cal State campuses initially awarded funds in 2020, alongside Long Beach, Pomona, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and San José. The state expanded the program to include Northridge in 2021. All UC campuses participated in the pilot as well.
Moving from kitchen to garage to student housing
Rapid Rehousing felt like a “support system,” said Eli Reyneveld, a third-year communications major and soccer player at Sacramento State. He didn’t always want to be a student athlete, but after playing soccer at Modesto Junior College, the opportunity presented itself. “I scored a lot of goals,” he recalled.
When he received a Division I scholarship offer to cover his tuition at Sacramento State starting in spring 2024, he had just two days to accept. He worried whether he would be able to afford moving from his parents’ house in Modesto.
“I wasn’t ready to move anywhere, but I had to just take the jump,” Reyneveld said.
At first, Reyneveld moved into a house with five guys on the soccer team. He slept in the kitchen and paid $550 a month for his share of the rent.
It felt far from a home. It was hard for Reyneveld to get enough sleep, and there were tensions among his housemates. He moved into a different house shared by more of his teammates, where he slept on a mattress in the garage for $800 a month. A full night of rest was just as hard to get as the sound of cars never stopped.
Being a student athlete required Reyneveld to juggle school, traveling for games, training and maintaining a healthy diet. But his living conditions made it hard to eat and sleep consistently.
He avoided telling trainers and staff about his living situation, recalling being “too prideful to tell anybody,” until his athletic performance deteriorated. By September 2024, his trainer pulled him aside at practice and Reyneveld told him everything.
That week, Reyneveld met with Basic Needs Center staff and, that night, he was transferred into a hotel that Rapid Rehousing fully covered. Three days later, he moved into student housing where he would pay just $500 a month for five months, meals included.
“As soon as I got moved into a room, I think my coach and trainer could tell you, like, my performance is 180. I was a whole new player,” Reyneveld said.
Reyneveld moved out of student housing in February into his own apartment, where Rapid Rehousing is now paying him $200 a month for five months to help with his rent.
“I was about to turn down the scholarship to a D1 because I didn’t have the necessary means to move, but I just took a risk and (it) ended up working out because people are helping me,” he said.
Local organizations help campuses assist students
All campuses with Rapid Rehousing partner with community organizations that connect students to case managers, housing assistance, and academic and mental health support.
Long-term case management makes a big difference, according to Jessica Wolin, a public health lecturer at San Francisco State, who led the Cal State Long Beach evaluation of the program.
“Our evaluation showed the more meaningful outcomes for students who are experiencing homelessness is through this longer term, higher touch, more holistic intervention,” Wolin said. “And those needs are not met with (just) an emergency voucher.”
At Sacramento State, all students in the Rapid Rehousing program pay $500 per month toward their housing costs until they are ready for the next step. Other campuses, such as Chico State, determine students’ costs based on what they can afford. On-campus teams also work with financial aid offices to incorporate emergency grants into students’ aid packages.
Rapid Rehousing also teaches students about managing personal finances, understanding lease agreements, handling roommate conflicts, and planning for housing after graduation. Community partners work with students one semester prior to their graduation date to find housing they can afford or find relatives they can live with after graduation.
“Because these programs are (tied to enrollment), we have to make sure that we structure them so that students have some sense of urgency about the importance of working with us to find their next more permanent and stable housing that will be more long-term,” said Sacramento State Campus Wellness Director Emily Tupper.
Since 2020, Chico State’s Rapid Rehousing Program has provided over 600 students emergency shelter, transitional housing, or grants.
“A lot of students were thinking about dropping out of school and, after, they report that Rapid Rehousing has helped them stay in school,” said Chico State Basic Needs Director Leah Slem. “Our program is a lifeline to these students who possibly would have dropped out had they not received this assistance.”
When R.S., a student at Chico State who requested anonymity due to her international student status, first heard from her parents that they were on the verge of going bankrupt, she immediately went to the university’s International Student and Scholar Services office. In less than a month, she moved out of her off-campus apartment into on-campus student housing, which has been fully covered since November 2024.
With the help of her case manager, R.S. was referred to work on campus at Chico State’s Hungry Wildcat Food Pantry, which helped pay for her tuition.
International students often face unique challenges in college, Wolin said. In addition to not being able to access family support nearby, they are also not eligible for benefits like CalFresh.
“I was kind of going through a lot, but I didn’t really reach out for anything until the water almost got into my nose, and I’m like, ‘Oh no, you know, if I don’t help myself, who can help me?’’’ R.S. recalled. She urges all students to put themselves “out there” and to not be scared to ask for help.
Even with programs like Rapid Rehousing, housing insecurity still affects students across the state. As of April 2024, 1 in 5 community college students, 1 in 10 Cal State students and 1 in 20 UC students face homelessness, whereas 1 in 12 face homelessness in the general California population, according to California Competes.
From formerly homeless to doctoral dreams
The Cal State Long Beach evaluation of the Rapid Rehousing program at eight Cal States and two community colleges revealed how homelessness and housing insecurity disproportionately impacts certain student groups.
Of Cal State students, 4% identify as Black or African American, compared to 18.5% of Rapid Rehousing students. One-third of Cal State students are transfers, but transfers made up nearly half of Rapid Rehousing participants. Three-quarters of Rapid Rehousing students were first-generation, compared to a quarter systemwide. Foster youth made up 17% of the program, versus less than 1% of all students at Cal State.
Wolin said the findings reveal that “the program is reaching who they need to reach.”
As a formerly incarcerated, first-generation and transfer student at Chico State, Deleon recalled how “even having an associate’s (degree) was a big thing” for his family. He enrolled at College of the Desert to earn a 25-unit certificate in agriculture. On his first day, he recalled his professor telling him, “if you’re here for the certificate, you may as well stay for the degree.”
He completed his associate’s degree in agriculture, delivered his class graduation speech, and got accepted by all five Cal State universities he applied to. But after he left a long-term relationship at the end of that school year, he found himself homeless and couch surfing.
At Chico State, Rapid Rehousing helped Deleon remain in student housing throughout the 2024-25 school year while he worked on campus at Project Rebound, a program that supports formerly incarcerated students. In June, he moved into a shared off-campus apartment.
This fall, Deleon will be starting a master’s degree in agriculture at Chico State, and he hopes to later obtain a doctorate. If it weren’t for Rapid Rehousing, he said he doesn’t know if he would have had “the courage to stay in school.”
Deleon just returned from his first plane ride and research trip in Puerto Rico, where he saw plantain, mango, coffee berry and pineapple farms. Agriculture is what led Deleon back to school, he recalled, but Rapid Rehousing kept him in it.
“I’m planting those seeds of getting a Ph.D. now,” Deleon said. “(As) someone that’s formerly incarcerated, messed up his life before he got it back together … now that I have a second chance of getting my life right, look what I’ve done with it, with the opportunity I was given.”
Khadeejah Khan is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
