SACRAMENTO, Calif — The California Department of Education is entering the housing crisis and proposing a unique solution: take undeveloped land that school districts own and turn it into housing for teachers.
Teachers, custodians and secretaries would all qualify for this affordable housing. It would be built on property already owned by school districts, according to State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond.
“If each district that we identified as having surplus property developed 30 units, that would result in 2.3 million new units available for the California workforce,” Thurmond said.
Across the state, there are more than 7,068 properties and 75,000 acres worth of potential development. They hope this will also help with teacher shortages and retention.
Tristan Brown, the legislative director for the California Federation of Teachers, said most starting salaries for teachers qualify them for housing assistance, so they know the need exists.
“We have teachers driving over 100 miles, hours in a car, each morning and afternoon,” Brown said.
Five projects have already been completed across the state with four more under construction.
One of the first sites in the nation was built near San Francisco in Daly City at the Jefferson Union High School District. Andy Lie, with the district, said rent for a one-bedroom apartment is around $1,400.
“It’s been significant the fact that we actually have a high retention rate on an annual basis,” Lie said.
As far as how it works, the school districts will partner with a nonprofit or for-profit developer while maintaining ownership of the land, or they can sell the land.
“Sell the property because they need revenue and this can go into the General Fund of the school district and used at the discretion of the school board,” Thurmond said.
They’ll offer rent at 50% lower than market value.
ABC10 took a look at local districts using the software developed by UCLA and UC Berkley to assess the property. Within the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), 52 properties with 260 developable acres were found. SCUSD said they identified Fremont School, Old Marshall Property and Thomas Jefferson for development.
However, the software shows more possibilities, like 11 acres at Luther Burbank and 10 acres at John F. Kennedy High School.
Some school districts may have to end up passing bond measures for funding for these projects.
Legislation is also in the works. Districts will also have to decide who within their staff qualifies. ABC10 asked the superintendent if he was worried about selling the land that could eventually be needed to build more schools. He said they will monitor it, but recent population decline leads them to believe they can develop the land instead.
Superintendent Thurmond is hosting a housing summit on August 14.
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