While visiting the kitchen, then Dean of Student Services Dr. Lennor Johnson met a married couple who were both enrolled at IVC, earning above 3.0 GPAs, and living out of their cars.
“That struck a nerve,” said Johnson, now IVC president and superintendent. “If you know anything about El Centro and our region, we’re in the middle of the desert. In the summertime, it can be well over 125 degrees—[living out of your car] is not sustainable.”
So that’s when he and other leadership at IVC began exploring the idea of student housing. Through a pilot program that offered 12 housing insecure students homes in RVs, Johnson said IVC learned a lot of lessons about the difficulties and triumphs of residential management, how to support students, and how to build community. Even though it was difficult, Johnson said the decision to invest in housing for their students was “so worth it.”
“When you start a housing program, designed for fostering homeless students, the message gets around quick: we’re not just a school, we’re a place you can call home, and everywhere you turn someone will support, coach and encourage you,” said Johnson. “No matter how big or small the issues, we’ll try to address it or solve it for you.”
Dr. Lennor Johnson, president and superintendent of Imperial Valley College in El Centro, California.
Out of the system’s 1.8 million attendees, current housing capacity exists for only 2,369 students. A 2019 survey of almost 40,000 California community college students found that 60% of respondents indicated they were housing insecure in 2018, according to The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, an action research center working to make higher education more equitable.
