S.F. board considers building housing for teachers

The San Francisco school board is looking to get into the affordable housing business to help teachers and other district employees who might not otherwise be able to afford to live in the city.

For years, the district has sat on a largely vacant lot at 1950 Mission St., a piece of blighted property in the Mission District.

The land is valued at upward of $9 million, and leasing the property to a market-rate housing developer could yield $300,000 to $500,000 in annual revenue for city schools, district officials said.

But in the late spring at a committee meeting, a majority on the school board balked at a proposal by Superintendent Carlos Garcia to lease the land and use the cash to build a housing fund that would support mortgage down payments or rent payments for teachers and district employees.

Instead, the board directed staff to pursue affordable housing on the site, working with public and nonprofit agencies to find the money to build it.

"It is public land," said board member Sandra Fewer. "So the question is, should the public land be given over to private developers?"

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/03/BA101K2AF9.DTL

A precentage of affordable housing will be made available to low-income families.

"One idea proposed several years ago was a teacher-only apartment next to the new Dianne Feinstein Elementary School in the Sunset District. Teachers apparently objected, saying they didn't want to go home every night to a building full of fellow teachers, union officials said.

A more reasonable concept would be a building with some housing units dedicated to teachers, perhaps 40 percent of 100 living spaces, said Dennis Kelly, president of the United Educators of San Francisco. The rest would be affordable housing for low-income residents."

when the state has been cutting education budget for the past several years and the families are struggling. Is it really necessary for teachers to live in the city?

And teach by videolink. How do you like that solution?

Teachers are struggling too. You live in the Bay Area so you're familiar with San Francisco living expenses and the daily costs of mass transit for those outside city limits. Wouldn't subsidized teacher housing help retain/attract better teachers? Doesn't it make for a more diversified city demographic?

and I actually live in San Jose but have read about the expensive cost of living in our major cities. It seems that the clueless public doesn't really value teachers as you can see in the comments section of this story.

Pay the teachers more and let them live where they want to live. I don't think that the government can efficiently run a program like this. Look to sell the land for the top dollar that the school district can receive. Use that money to fund needed construction, reduce debt, or place in a pool to be drawn on for higher salaries.