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A smattering of school districts across the U.S. are trying a new tactic in their efforts to recruit and retain educators: providing affordable housing.
The Jefferson Union High School District — a California public school district with more than 4,700 students just outside of San Francisco — opened the doors in May to its first affordable housing project geared toward teachers and staff of the schools. The 122-unit project is the results of a plan, launched five years ago, to address housing affordability in the area, Pacifica Tribune reported. In 2018, voters in the school district approved a bond that funded $33M toward the $75M project instead of raising teacher salaries, according to Pacifica.
“It’s like a great gift coming from the district,” Eleonor Obedoza, a math teacher with the school district who now rents a three-bedroom apartment there, told the Associated Press.
Teacher salaries are generally failing to keep up with inflating housing costs. The AP reported that a 2016 Redfin study determined that only 20% of homes for sale in the U.S. were affordable on an average teacher's salary of $62,800. The stats are worse in California, where 83% of all homes for sale were unattainable on a teacher's salary in 2014, according to Redfin.
While rare, there are a growing number of school districts that are looking to use models similar to Jefferson Union to provide educator and employee housing. The American Federation of Teachers helped open a mixed-use apartment for teachers in Welch, West Virginia, the AP reported.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the AFT union, told the AP educators were spending hours to commute to schools before the project opened.
“So this became an idea to spark economic development and to create housing,” Weingarten said.
Private developers also are beginning to cater to the education industry.
Last year, RBH Group LLC received $30M in incentives from the city of Atlanta's economic development agency to build Teachers Village, a $176M, 31-story mixed-use tower in the heart of Downtown Atlanta. RBH plans to rent 229 of the 438 units to Atlanta Public School employees at affordable rents, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. More than 70% of APS' 3,000 employees live outside the district.
RBH has done similar projects in Newark, New Jersey, and Hartford, Connecticut.
“It’s meant to be moderate, affordable housing … right there in the heart of downtown. There's nothing not to like about the project,” said Michelle Olympiadis, a member of the Atlanta Board of Education.
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