“It’s impressive,” Worden says of the building. “The goal was to create a product that was on par with the market price (alternatives). “It rivals the buildings I’ve seen in San Francisco.”
He remembers giving tours to interested staff and delighting in their “oohs” and “ahhs” as they entered individual units. Many didn’t know what to expect from the district’s development, but once in the building, he says, they were impressed.
Colleagues as neighbors
Cruz was one of the employees who was pleasantly surprised by the finished product.
The 67-year-old remembers hearing about the plan to develop workforce housing for educators a few years ago and says she started looking for a unit in the new complex “the moment they started building.”
“Housing is extremely difficult here,” says Cruz, who was born and raised in San Francisco. “None of us get paid what we’re worth.”
She and her husband had been paying more rent than they were comfortable living in an apartment building in Daly City that she describes as run-down. Her modest salaries (she is an administrative assistant to a high school principal in JUHSD and her husband drives a mail truck for the San Francisco Unified School District) were maxed out.
“We were paying more and more every year for less and less,” Cruz says, explaining that the rent always increased even as the building’s condition deteriorated.
So when Cruz learned that she and her husband would be moving into a two-bedroom unit in the complex last spring (and paying $1,000 less per month than their previous rent), she was excited.
“This was a blessing from heaven,” he says.
The building is beautiful and the amenities match those of luxury buildings, Cruz says. But the most important thing is that it is affordable.
“This housing project has really allowed people like me to continue living and working in this area, and it has also allowed teachers who have never had a place of their own to have a place and not have to work two or three jobs to support themselves. ” she explains. “It’s been a pretty remarkable situation.”
For a relatively small school district with about 25 percent of its entire staff housed in a single building, residents are sure to see familiar faces in the elevators and in the hallways. Cruz lives between a colleague she knew from his former job at the district and a counselor at the high school where he currently works.
She regularly meets with her counselor neighbor at the gym, she says. She sees other colleagues in the shared laundry room.
“I had to get used to saying, ‘Okay, you guys are going to see me in my sloppy clothes,’” Cruz shares. But she actually loves living in a community with her district co-workers.
“There is a certain pride in caring for the place we all live and supporting each other,” Cruz says. “I like to park next to people where I know I don’t want to hit their car and they don’t want to hit mine. It’s familiar without being intrusive.”
Problem solved?
A year into living in district housing, Cruz has noticed that turnover seems to have slowed, at least at his school.
“This year was the first time we didn’t have to replace 10 teachers at the end of the school year,” he says.
District leaders say it’s too early to make broad assessments about turnover. They don’t expect to have “solid data” until December, says Tina Van Raaphorst, JUHSD assistant superintendent of business services. But what it does have is anecdotal evidence, and it looks promising.
JUHSD began the 2022-23 school year, the first full year since the apartment building opened, with all teaching positions filled, “at a time when some other districts in our area and across the state could not find enough teachers.” ”Van Raaphorst shared. in an email. He has heard from at least two teachers who say they stayed in the district because of employee housing and from others who say they have been able to take advantage of training opportunities and other extracurricular activities for the district because their commute is shorter or not They have to work a second job in the evenings.
Worden, director of staff housing, shares that the housing benefit has also helped with recruiting. The district hired a teacher who came from Los Angeles after hearing about staff housing. Another North Carolina teacher who had always wanted to teach and live in the Bay Area decided to move across the country after learning she could live in the district’s subsidized housing.
“We are already seeing its positive benefits,” says Worden.
So is that all? Is the problem resolved at JUHSD?
In the short term, yes, says Worden.
The only problem is that residents have currently been told they can live in the district-owned apartment for five years. The idea is to “encourage residents to save financially for their future home,” Worden says, “as well as provide space for future employees who want the opportunity to live in the educational housing building.”
Cruz is skeptical that anyone in the district — a teacher or a school support staff member like herself — could save enough money in five years to buy a home in the area. The rent is a significant improvement over what many residents were paying, but in many places those prices would still be eye-watering.
However, that five-year limit is not closed, Worden points out. It has the potential to expand, depending on housing demand in the district. (There is currently a waiting list for units.)
So far, the project has been such a success that Worden hopes to see more school districts use their land for educator housing. Based on how many have asked about the project and asked to tour the complex, it seems likely that he will soon do so.
He often tells other district leaders to be creative. Do you have an old sports field that you could build on? Or perhaps, as in the case of JUHSD, an empty parking lot?
As for Cruz, she will stay still as long as she is allowed.
“The rent is so affordable that I’m afraid to stop working,” he says. “I really don’t think I’m going to have a chance to retire anytime soon, so I feel like I’m winging it right now. “I will continue to work as much as I can and we will continue to live here.”
And once your time is up? Well, luckily, her husband’s the school district has started construction in its own affordable housing project for educators. Perhaps next, the couple will call that community home.
