SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The San Diego Unified School District is moving forward with a plan to provide more affordable housing for faculty and staff.
Trustees approved three resolutions at Tuesday night’s meeting that will now pave the way for the work to begin. The district’s goal is to house 10% of employees over the next decade by repurposing property already owned by the district.
“Our staff has seen essentially a quarter of their purchasing power in relation to housing decline over the last five years,” said Cody Petterson, San Diego Unified School Board President.
Supporters of the initiative think it’s a step in the right direction.
“My hope is that moving forward it’s not just that 10% it maybe leans more toward 30% with also the balance of a living wage,” according to Issel Martinez, California School Employees Association San Diego Paraeducator President Local 759.
Developing five existing district-owned properties is at the core of the district’s mission to build roughly 1,500 units. The sites include the current district headquarters in University Heights, the Revere Center in Linda Vista, Ballard Center in Old Town, the Instructional Media Center in Serra Mesa and a commercial street property in Logan Heights.
“We have an educator at Rosa Parks Elementary who’s now living in housing built on district property the Livia development who was commuting from Tijuana for 10 years,” said Kyle Weinberg, San Diego Education Association President.
The Livia Complex in Scripps Ranch is already changing lives with an employee survey showing interest exceeded availability.
“About 2,700 responses so there’s a lot of interest in affordable housing,” said a district staffer.
Meanwhile a contract for the old Central Elementary site has been given the greenlight.
While the overall goal is so far well-received by community members there are some concerns.
“Where you say maximizing affordability is the highest priority I would suggest saying maximizing the number of affordable homes as the highest priority. I would caution against falling into this trap of aiming for the highest percentage of affordable homes,” said San Diego resident Andrew Bowen.
SDUSD will lease out the properties to developers that are selected and leave the cost on them.
“These five contracts are essentially no cost to the district,” Petterson said.
The school district will also establish a regional housing finance authority with the San Diego Community College District. SDCCD declined an interview, but provided FOX 5/KUSI the following statement:
“Participation in a housing authority with San Diego Unified is a topic that will be considered by the San Diego Community College District’s Board of Trustees in the coming weeks. Until that discussion takes place, it would be premature for the District to comment on the proposal.”
Jack Beresford, SDCCD Spokesperson
Additionally, SDUSD plans to schedule and facilitate community listening sessions at each property site to help shape future proposals as part of the process.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
