CSBA and education workforce housing (EWH) research partners from the University of California, Los Angeles’ cityLAB and UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools released a follow-up to the 2022 report that was used as a launching point by California Department of Education officials and lawmakers to develop several state-led initiatives.
Released March 17, Education Workforce Housing: Insights from Nine California Developments, builds upon the earlier report, which provided an extensive review of the need for public EWH solutions, where and how some strategies can — and in some districts are already — being implemented, and recommendations to advance housing solutions on land currently owned by local educational agencies.
This latest effort takes an in-depth look at the experiences of nine LEAs that have successfully navigated the complex process of planning, financing and constructing EWH, highlighting best practices related to community engagement and planning, breaking down challenges around financing and maintaining focus during long-term construction.
Among the key findings:
- LEAs considering development of EWH need to allocate general funds for predevelopment expenses including feasibility studies, legal advice, property analysis, staff surveys and more. This poses both financial and political challenges, as many board members expressed an unwillingness to allocate funds to housing exploration that could be spent on education, according to the report. “Dedicated predevelopment funding for LEAs could help more districts take these initial first steps,” researchers wrote.
- Unlike other school facilities that are exempt from local zoning ordinances, housing developments built by LEAs are subject to local land use regulations and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements.
Legislation
CSBA has partnered with Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) to introduce an education workforce housing package for the 2025–26 legislative session that addresses several of the concerning findings raised in the report.
Assembly Bill 1021 (Wicks/Muratsuchi) seeks to expand existing incentives and efficiencies to rural and small school districts and county offices of education by easing the administrative and bureaucratic hurdles associated with developing EWH. The bill would also provide TK-12 schools with the same CEQA exemptions already granted to affordable housing projects, and incentivize the development of workforce housing close to transit. Additionally, at least 30 percent of the new housing would be affordable to lower-income households, and another 20 percent to moderate-income households.
AB 1381 (Muratsuchi) would establish and fund a revolving loan account in the Office of the California State Treasurer to provide no-interest loans to LEAs to prepare feasibility studies for educational workforce housing projects. Loan amounts would be up to $150,000 per LEA, with the exact size of each loan dependent upon the size of the LEA and project scope.
This isn’t the first time CSBA has advocated in the Legislature to support LEAs in such efforts.
AB 2295, a CSBA-sponsored bill that sought to remove bureaucratic hurdles and increase incentives for districts to develop education workforce housing on vacant school property, went into effect Jan. 1, 2024. Specifically, the bill permits housing on school property and makes development of housing subject to objective affordability, occupancy and other criteria, rather than subjective development standards imposed by the city or county. This ensures that local building requirements apply and that the design blends with that of the surrounding community.
A brief history of EWH
It’s no secret that many of California’s public school teachers and classified staff cannot afford to live in the communities where they work, forcing them to commute long distances or pushing them out of the education system altogether. As districts attempt to recruit and retain teachers amid skyrocketing housing costs, some LEAs have begun seeking to take advantage of the Teacher Housing Act of 2016, which authorizes LEAs to pursue affordable housing for employees by leveraging a range of programs and fiscal resources available to other housing developers.
CSBA entered this space in 2021 when members highlighted the housing affordability crisis for teachers and classified staff. In addition to working with UCLA and UC Berkeley to release a research report and companion handbook targeted to school board members, the association also began offering a first-of-its-kind how-to workshop for a small group of LEAs with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. By 2023, over 120 LEAs had expressed interest in exploring workforce housing.
However, CSBA has been exploring the use of surplus school property for housing since before the pandemic at the directive of CSBA CEO & Executive Director Vernon M. Billy, who was determined to change how state policymakers and school officials view excess land and its possible functions. While some LEAs have considered selling surplus property for short-term financial gains, Billy has long advocated for preserving assets so they can benefit communities for years to come.
“That is the idea behind this approach, it’s keeping these assets in the community and finding ways that they can support the long-term financial health of these districts and county offices, and ultimately benefit the students they serve by having those teachers stay in the community,” CSBA Senior Director Andrew Keller said during a CSBA-led a breakout session on creating education workforce housing (EWH) and its relationship to school employee recruitment and retainment at a 2024 CDE event.
Additional resources
All CSBA members can access a statewide workforce housing resource library on the CSBA education workforce housing webpage. This suite of materials on EWH includes projects and case studies, interactive maps showing where surplus school property is located and where projects are underway, training materials, templates, research and business partner offerings, as well as the Education Workforce Housing Handbook, which provides school boards, administrators and community members with an understanding of how housing gets built, strategies for overcoming challenges to building, and frameworks for ensuring housing meets the specific needs of each LEA.
The resource library also includes recordings and presentations from previous workshops, fact sheets on all EWH sites in the state, sample board resolutions and requests for proposals from LEAs that have successfully built workforce housing, and much more.
Finally, anyone ready to work with an expert in education workforce housing can sign up for a free consultation with Property Planning Solutions, a partnership between CSBA and real estate advisory firm DCG Strategies.
Still have questions? Contact EdWorkforceHousing@csba.org.
