Efforts to build affordable housing for teachers in California are gaining steam as the state’s cost of living rises and schools look for ways to recruit and retain staff within their communities.
Earlier this month, for instance, Jefferson Elementary School District, a K-8 district in San Mateo County, announced the grand opening of workforce housing for teachers and staff. The 56-unit facility located next to Margaret Pauline Brown Elementary School can house between 56 to 70 employees, according to the district.
The district constructed the property using funds from a $30 million bond approved by Daly City residents in 2018.
“Our educators can focus on inspiring and educating our students instead of considering relocating due to high housing costs,” said Sandy Mikulik, superintendent of Jefferson Elementary School District, in a statement. “We are also thrilled to receive increased interest in job applicants. This is a step forward for our school district culture and recruitment and it will have a lasting impact for years to come.”
Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City also began offering affordable employee housing in 2022. And in 2021, the Los Angeles Unified School District started to explore affordable housing options for the school system’s teachers and staff.
It’s likely that more school systems may lean into offering similar housing benefits, as state leaders announced last month a new initiative to speed up housing developments geared toward educators by using 75,000 acres of district-owned land. Overall, the state hopes to add 2.3 million new housing units on districts' properties.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has pushed for state tax credits to go toward teacher housing, and about $500 million was approved in the 2020 state budget to do so, according to the California Department of Education. Thurmond is also advocating for state incentives to benefit local school districts that pass bond measures to build affordable teacher and staff housing.
“California’s housing crisis is undeniable, but it is not unsolvable,” Thurmond said in a statement. “We know that families across our state are impacted, from the homelessness crisis facing our urban areas, to the long commute times impacting families priced out of once-affordable neighborhoods, to the staffing crisis in schools whose educators can’t afford to live where they work.”
A good first step
The state’s affordable teacher housing push comes as California remains the most expensive state to live in 2024, according to a CNBC analysis.
Building housing for educators is a good first step, said Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers. However, district-provided housing “doesn’t create wealth for those teachers, and that is a concern,” he said. “While it may help them out, it may find them housing, it doesn’t get them to that next step.”
In addition to offering affordable rental housing, districts need to pay teachers “real, enjoyable wages” so they can eventually buy their own home, Freitas said.
According to the California Department of Education, the average salary for public school teachers was $95,160 in the 2022-23 school year. While California teachers receive higher wages than in most states, it’s often not enough to rent or buy a home near where they work, Freitas said.
Nationwide, home rental costs have gone up by more than 20%, while average home prices have increased by 40% in the last five years, said Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. However, in that same period, teacher salaries have increased by 15%, she said.
Given that, it’s important to focus on both raising teacher pay and offering incentives like affordable housing to help recruit and retain staff, she said.
Concerns with districts becoming landlords
As school districts, particularly in California, consider providing affordable housing for teachers, leaders need to keep a close eye on data regarding the extent to which their teacher applicant pool increases, as well as the quality of those applicants, Peske said. Retention rates for existing staff are another good measure to look out for when gauging this policy’s success, she added.
Peske said there are some outstanding questions that need to be raised when it comes to affordable teacher housing, such as whether teachers would still have access to district housing if teachers lose their jobs.
“Being landlords is not the core function of school districts,” Peske said. “And when districts move into the business of building, maintaining, [and] leasing housing, this could put their core responsibilities of educating students at risk, so I would not go into this lightly if I were a district.”
If a teacher does lose their job and they are living in a district-owned property, Freitas said, there need to be some protections in place that give teachers additional time to move out.
“Not only are you losing your income, but you’re losing your roof,” he said. “That is a very serious concern.”
