SF teachers get hand with housing

Many teachers in San Francisco can’t afford to live in The City as housing prices continue to rise, and that’s why Mayor Ed Lee announced a plan today to help provide housing for 500 teachers by 2020.

Lee and San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard Carranza also discussed renewing the federal Teacher Next Door program, which provides down payment and loan assistance to make buying a home in The City affordable, as well as greater tenant counseling and eviction assistance for SFUSD teachers:

“At a time when we are facing a teacher shortage and too many of our staff are being priced out of San Francisco, it is crucial that we do whatever we can to improve housing access and affordability for our educators.”

The concept is being considered in parts of the East Bay and has already been implemented in Santa Clara, where the Santa Clara Unified School District was one the first in the state to experiment with dedicated teacher housing in 2002.

Casa del Maestro, or House of the Teacher in English, consists of 70 units of dedicated housing. Teachers moving in must have worked for the district for less than three years and they can only stay for a limited time.

Ideally, they can access the school district’s mortgage assistance program after that.

San Francisco’s new plan calls for the joint development of educator housing for at least 100 households and rental assistance to be provided to at least another 100 educators. Another 300 teachers will be able to access additional housing assistance programs through The City, according to Lee.