Search Continues for Teacher Housing
District board members approve plan to survey possible construction sites
By Darius Parakh and Tom Patterson
District board members approve plan to survey possible construction sites
By Darius Parakh and Tom Patterson
Nearly a year since San José Unified School District announced its plan to begin constructing low-income housing for its staff, the Board of Education has finally taken its first step towards starting the project.
On Sept. 23, the board voted 4-1 to begin surveying four possible locations for housing — Parking Lot 9 at the SJUSD Offices, River Glen K-8 School, Second Start-Pine Hill School and the MetroED Non-Instructional Property.
This marks another step in the school district’s movement towards combating the rampant disparity between teacher income and rent prices. Under the current salary scale, newly hired teachers have been forced to turn towards finding roommates in order to cover the cost of living in San Jose.
For math teacher Jenee Dampier, the lack of a living wage meant she had to live with her parents until she found fellow teacher Laura Cozzella to help split the rent.
“During my first year at Pioneer, I lived with my parents and every year after that, I have lived with Cozzella. I wouldn’t be able to afford even a one bedroom apartment without her help,” said Dampier. “It’s simply more manageable this way.”
Dampier is not the only teacher who is currently struggling to live on their own. The rising cost of living has become a major cause for concern for the San José Teachers’ Association, which is now publicly supporting the district’s proposal.
SJTA President Patrick Bernhardt was one of many to speak before the board in September and echoed the complaints brought by the local teachers.
“There is a general consensus that there is a housing crisis in Santa Clara County and I don’t think that it will be fixed unless lots of different public policy actors work together to solve it,” said Bernhardt. “In terms of housing, I certainly recognize that 300 units of employee housing is not going to solve the Bay Area housing crisis. It probably doesn’t even solve the affordability crisis for employees of San José Unified.”
So far in the process, the school district and union have remained completely on their own in their support of the proposal. Without the aid of private or public funding, Board President Kimberkly Meek is worried that the district would be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on surveying plots of lands, without the guarantee that the hard work would pay off.
“This has the potential to be a great reward, however, I maintain that at this moment, we are so alone,” said Meek. “I am greatly concerned that we are going to spend $600,000 on a hope, and hope is just not a strategy.”
The district’s survey of their property is projected to end on April 15, 2020, alongside plans and renderings of the potential construction sites.
On Sept. 23, the board voted 4-1 to begin surveying four possible locations for housing — Parking Lot 9 at the SJUSD Offices, River Glen K-8 School, Second Start-Pine Hill School and the MetroED Non-Instructional Property.
This marks another step in the school district’s movement towards combating the rampant disparity between teacher income and rent prices. Under the current salary scale, newly hired teachers have been forced to turn towards finding roommates in order to cover the cost of living in San Jose.
For math teacher Jenee Dampier, the lack of a living wage meant she had to live with her parents until she found fellow teacher Laura Cozzella to help split the rent.
“During my first year at Pioneer, I lived with my parents and every year after that, I have lived with Cozzella. I wouldn’t be able to afford even a one bedroom apartment without her help,” said Dampier. “It’s simply more manageable this way.”
Dampier is not the only teacher who is currently struggling to live on their own. The rising cost of living has become a major cause for concern for the San José Teachers’ Association, which is now publicly supporting the district’s proposal.
SJTA President Patrick Bernhardt was one of many to speak before the board in September and echoed the complaints brought by the local teachers.
“There is a general consensus that there is a housing crisis in Santa Clara County and I don’t think that it will be fixed unless lots of different public policy actors work together to solve it,” said Bernhardt. “In terms of housing, I certainly recognize that 300 units of employee housing is not going to solve the Bay Area housing crisis. It probably doesn’t even solve the affordability crisis for employees of San José Unified.”
So far in the process, the school district and union have remained completely on their own in their support of the proposal. Without the aid of private or public funding, Board President Kimberkly Meek is worried that the district would be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on surveying plots of lands, without the guarantee that the hard work would pay off.
“This has the potential to be a great reward, however, I maintain that at this moment, we are so alone,” said Meek. “I am greatly concerned that we are going to spend $600,000 on a hope, and hope is just not a strategy.”
The district’s survey of their property is projected to end on April 15, 2020, alongside plans and renderings of the potential construction sites.