Barrera Minute #6: The Rent is Too Damn High!
In 2010, New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan’s slogan, “The rent is too damn high” went viral. Sadly, fifteen years later, the rent is still too damn high, especially for moderate income Californians, including our educators. Addressing this crisis is a top priority for me, both as a San Diego school board member and as the Senior Policy Advisor to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
You might ask why public schools should take the lead on addressing the statewide housing shortage. The answer is that our students’ education depends on it. Despite great strides in pay for teachers and classified staff, the rising cost of housing in California has made it increasingly difficult for educators to live near where they work. According to the California School Boards Association, nearly one-third of teacher households spend 30% or more of their family income on rent. More than half of food service workers are burdened by unsustainable housing costs.
As a result, many educators and support staff move away from high-cost areas, draining our classrooms and support services of the experienced hands we need to provide a quality education to our students.
Yet, California’s public schools are sitting on an untapped resource – 75,000 acres of property that could be developed into two to three million units of affordable housing. But education leaders are rarely experts in housing development and state funds for this undertaking have not materialized. For this reason, one of my roles at the California Department of Education is to support local district leaders in identifying partnerships with private developers, philanthropies, and other stakeholders.
“Affordable housing developed by the school district can be life changing for educators, often making the difference between making ends meet and homelessness.”
It is just such a partnership that is enabling San Diego Unified to create nearly 300 housing units on the site of a former elementary school in City Heights, more than half of which are reserved for classified district employees, who will pay no more than 30% of their income on rent. This follows another project completed a few years ago on the site of a former elementary school in Scripps Ranch, where over 50 district employees now live in beautiful apartments and pay no more than 30% of their income on rent.
A San Diego Unified pre-school teacher and her daughter prepare dinner in their new affordable home in school district housing built on the site of a former elementary school.
San Diego Unified is on track to develop five additional properties into at least 1,500 affordable homes. Here’s what I said about why it’s important for school districts to build for a future in which the rent will no longer be too damn high.
Please help me help school districts create life-changing housing for school workers, by donating to our campaign or getting involved at https://www.barreraforedu.com
Forward together,
Richard
