The Milpitas Unified School District is experimenting with a novel strategy as cities throughout the Bay Area work to build affordable teacher housing: asking parents to take in teachers who are being priced out of the area due to skyrocketing rents in Silicon Valley.
The district claimed that during the previous academic year, it lost at least seven instructors due to financial struggles. According to the rental listing website Zumper, the typical rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Milpitas is now close to $3,000 per month, a 15% increase since last September. That equates to about half of the district’s early-career teachers’ annual compensation, which was around $68,000 in 2017.
In summary
The district reported receiving 55 answers from families wishing to rent out a room in their house since posting its request online last week.
A school district in Northern California is putting an innovative approach to its teacher housing problem to the test by asking locals to rent them rooms.
In response to staff reductions and exorbitant housing costs that have made it challenging for teachers to reside close to their places of employment, the Milpitas Unified School District issued the request to families in late August.
In a statement to NPR, Superintendent Cheryl Jordan stated that the district had already received 55 responses to its request.
She cited it as evidence that Milpitas residents, parents, and caregivers “respect our district staff members.”
According to district spokesperson Scott Forstner, no employees who had obtained a unit through the nearly one-week-old request to families have yet to contact the district.
Milpitas, a suburb of San Jose, has a typical property price of $1.3 million.
According to data issued in August by the California Association of Realtors, the median home price in about 4 out of 5 California counties has increased since last year.
The Milpitas Unified School District lost 10 teachers in the previous school year, according to officials. Three people left California, and seven others relocated to “more affordable” areas.
Jordan stated at a recent school board meeting that two surveys, carried out by the district in 2017 and 2021, revealed that some staff employees had lengthy commutes and lacked stable housing.
What was spoken?
She cited it as evidence that Milpitas residents, parents, and caregivers “respect our district staff members.”
According to district spokesperson Scott Forstner, no employees who had obtained a unit through the nearly one-week-old request to families have yet to contact the district.
Milpitas, a suburb of San Jose, has a typical property price of $1.3 million, according to Realtor.com.
According to data issued in August by the California Association of Realtors, the median home price in about 4 out of 5 California counties has increased since last year.
In a resolution, the Milpitas school board stated that “affordable rental housing is in short supply and the gap between individuals who can afford to live in the San Francisco Bay Area and those who are unable is widening at an alarming rate.” Some people are forced to work part-time jobs to cover their monthly housing costs.
The district has looked into further options to increase the residential facilities for teachers, including working with organisations that provide loans to teachers and taking into account the development of supplementary housing units, which are little houses built on the same lot as bigger ones.
While the California school district is looking into every possibility to fill open teaching positions, the majority of Americans merely desire that teachers were paid more.
No matter how expensive a region is to live in, there is a severe lack of teachers nationwide. Many educators are choosing to completely abandon the field in favour of employment with higher pay.
California has such high housing costs that one school district is requesting that instructors move in with students’ families.
- One of the most unaffordable home markets in the nation is found in California.
- Many teachers in the city of Milpitas cannot afford to live there.
- The city’s school district has a solution: ask families of pupils to provide housing for teachers.
- Homeownership in the Golden State has fallen to a 15-year low as housing values and rents increase.
Furthermore, housing has gotten so expensive in Milpitas, a community on the southernmost point of the San Francisco Bay, that many teachers are no longer able to afford to reside there.
A study reveals that middle-class Americans are the hardest hit by soaring rents.
To cover it, an individual would need to make $120,000 annually. According to the district’s collective bargaining agreement, teachers with master’s degrees currently need to work for more than 20 years in order to earn that much.
On the homepage of the school district’s website, there is currently a link labelled “Submit a room for rent,” which users can click to access a form where they can enter their name, address, the number of rooms they have available, the rent they are charging, and any other requirements or preferences for potential tenants. They have already had some achievements.
