With rising rents, some school districts are trying to find teachers affordable housing

When Kareem Wall was homeless last school year, his classroom couch became his spot for stealing a couple of hours of shut-eye after the school day.

The 31-year-old had a second job as an overnight clerk at a Kansas City Hampton Inn, where he showered in out-of-order hotel rooms, often eating cereal, a muffin and fruit at the free breakfast before heading back to school.

The lack of sleep took a toll on his body, Wall said.

“There were times where I felt irritable, delirious, extremely fatigued, I felt like my body was one step behind," the English teacher told USA TODAY.

Across the country, low pay, costly rents and tight housing markets put many teachers just a few steps away from Wall's situation − especially those new to the profession and earning starting salaries. The housing struggles teachers face have become such a crisis that many school districts are trying to solve it by building apartments teachers can afford.

In Wall's case, a teacher housing nonprofit stepped in, renting him a unit in a duplex built for teachers. Kansas City Public Schools is also exploring its own housing, the district told USA TODAY.

Wall, who makes $46,000 a year at the school district, said he was evicted two days into his first year on the job, in August 2022, after learning his roommate was pocketing his rent contribution, never paying their landlord.

It was "almost insurmountable" for him to get another place, he said. His first paycheck was a month away and he had no money left over from the summer. For seven months, he bounced between school, the hotel, his car, crashing with friends and sometimes he paid for a hotel room, he said.

Now, Wall said, "I feel like I’ve stumbled upon Kansas City’s best-kept secret," paying $400 a month for a one-bedroom unit, where the average rent citywide has climbed to around $1,200.

Can teachers afford housing? In many cases, no

The National Education Association found the average starting salary for teachers in recent years was just above $40,000.

And throughout the U.S., nearly 90% of public schools struggled to fill teaching positions this school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Recent economic data also shows starting teachers would have to spend more than 30% of their salary on rent − the definition of unaffordable housing − in more than 1 out of every 5 of the country's largest metro areas.

These financial factors mean teacher housing units have become one of the most effective retention strategies schools have at their disposal, district leaders told USA TODAY.

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Teachers say they're pummeled by housing costs

From North Carolina to Florida to California, school employees said they face financial burdens when it comes to paying rent and saving for a down payment for a home.

“I hear a lot of stories of people who feel like they can never get out of feeling stressed about finances," said Renata Sanchez, president of the San Jose Teachers Association, representing 1,500 educators in the city about an hour southeast of San Francisco.

Some teachers in Sanchez's district, especially those earning starting salaries, must live with multiple roommates or commute as long as 90 minutes to and from school to live somewhere they can afford. When roommates leave or become unemployed, teachers have had to take on extra loans, she said.

“From the California perspective, even though our salaries look really great compared with the rest of the United States, it isn't our lived reality," she said.

The district said they're informing the community "about the necessity of a bond" for a potential teacher housing project, and they're assessing their "facility needs," according to San Jose Unified School District Director of Communications and Engagement Esmé Bautista.

Forty-five minutes north in Pacifica, California, Oliver Bishop and his fiancé were preparing to leave the Bay Area for somewhere more affordable two years ago.

But then the 26-year-old band director got a job offer − and teacher housing − at Terra Nova High School. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is more than twice the size of the studio apartment Bishop and his fiancé previously rented for the same price, $1,900, he said.

"If there wasn't housing, I wouldn't be here," Bishop said, explaining he'd have looked for a job in another California city where he could earn around $80,000 as a high school band director. His school district pays him around $64,000, he said.

Now, he commutes 10 minutes to his job from the teacher housing complex, nicknamed "the dorms."

In Southern California, the Los Angeles Unified School District has 185 affordable rental units across three sites. District staff "receive priority in leasing the units," the district's website says and the units are "pivotal in our endeavor to attract and retain top talent," district spokesperson Shannon Haber told USA TODAY.

Across the country in Florida's Osceola County, Brian Kerekes has taught high school statistics for 16 years and earns $52,000, just shy of the area's median household income of $55,000. He and his fiancé live with another roommate because he says he can't afford not to.

Kerekes has worked at Disney world for many summers and even part-time on weekends during the school years to make extra cash, he said.

"I don't see how I'd be able to afford rent if I was on my own, and I have friends and colleagues who are in the same position," he said. "If they were on their own, that'd be an insane challenge."

If his school district offered teacher housing and he could access it, he would be able to better plan his future, he said.

The School District of Osceola County declined to comment on the issue of housing for teachers.

Teacher housing helps prevent educators from quitting, districts say

Bishop's Jefferson Union High School District saw its teacher shortage problem evaporate after opening the 122-unit housing complex in 2022, said Austin Worden, director of communications and staff housing. This academic year and last, the district has had no teacher vacancies for the first time in years, he said.

“Our staff housing had a huge impact on that," Worden said.

The few districts in the U.S. that have housing programs can't build more units fast enough to meet demand.

"What we’re finding is it’s almost impossible for us to recruit and retain new staff now if we can’t offer them housing. It’s just so tight here,” said Ben Bohmfalk, chief operating officer of Eagle County School District in Colorado, which has one of the nation's largest teacher housing programs.

As costs have kept climbing, more school districts weigh the option. But the process is difficult: Building apartments, townhomes and single-family homes for educators takes the better part of a decade and requires patchwork funding schemes, district leaders told USA TODAY.

Even when successful, it's not a catch-all solution. Apartments built by districts range in numbers from just a couple of units to around 150, so in many cases, not all teachers can access them. Housing units also have lengthy waitlists, district leaders said.

Housing is “the only way you’re going to get new people,” said Trinity Davis, the founder of Teachers Like Me, the nonprofit that built Wall's duplex in Kansas City. The organization also focuses on recruiting new teachers from historically Black colleges and universities to work at Kansas City schools.

“I knew I needed to do housing, no matter what," Davis said.

What are the downsides of affordable housing for teachers?

Any help with housing costs from districts is a positive start, teachers told USA TODAY, but the new models mean that if a district employee loses or must leave a job, the housing is also lost.

"On the one hand, I think it's fantastic. But it's also a really sad indictment of our society when schools, of all places, are the ones trying to be the backstop against this crazy housing crisis," said Derek Born president of the Flagstaff Education Association, a 400-member chapter of the Arizona Education Association.

Some skeptics have also questioned the appeal of living with a bunch of co-workers, and Worden said that's a valid point, but everyone who does live in his district's housing units wants to be in them.

"We hear that from the teachers who are not living in the building and don't plan to live in the building," Worden said.

Education advocates also said affordable housing for teachers − despite being desperately needed − requires valuable time and resources from school districts.

"When districts have to spend time and money and human resources to solve the housing problem of their teacher workforce, it takes them away from their core responsibility," said Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. "Districts are doing this because they feel like they don't have another choice."

Other school employees need district housing

At Bishop's apartment complex, the units are split about evenly between educators and non-teaching staff, like custodians, maintenance staff, cafeteria workers and other employees, according to Worden.

"That's critical," Bishop said. "We all might not have the same job at work, but we're all working toward the same goal, we're trying to create a good learning environment and experience for the students."

Across the country in Charlotte, North Carolina, 47-year-old Brandon Brown who earns $17 an hour as head custodian, is the sole provider for his wife and her sister, who both have disabilities, and his 14-year-old son.

"When you add it all up you end up with nothing," he said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said they recognize the need for affordable housing among their workforce and the district is "in the planning stages" of exploring possible employee housing, Superintendent Crystal Hill told USA TODAY.

In North Carolina's popular Outer Banks, Dare County Schools has offered 36 affordable units in two apartment buildings since the 2007-2008 school year. Like in some Colorado school districts, the area desperately needs lower-income housing because the coast is saturated with luxury homes, said Dorothy Hester, Dare County Schools public information officer.

"We have lots of units that are second homes," she said. "That definitely impacts what’s available for the average person to rent year-round."

Salary raises and housing should be available, education leaders say

Kansas City Public Schools Senior Policy Strategist Kathleen Pointer said the district takes teachers' housing needs seriously.

"We have pushed really hard to see more truly affordable housing created in Kansas City, housing that's affordable both to our families and our teachers," Pointer said.

In Wall's school district, this year's starting salary of $46,650 is up 8% from last year's $43,100, said Shain Bergan, Kansas City Public Schools public relations coordinator. Bishop's district has also implemented raises recently, he said.

But despite the raises research shows the additional income was not enough to offset housing costs, said Peske, of the National Council on Teacher Quality.

"We should applaud districts for the good work they're doing to increase teacher salaries, but the pace of the cost of rentals or buying a house has significantly outpaced the increases," she said.

Across the country, and in California, teacher pay in many school districts is funded and set through tax revenue, so districts have limited ways to get more money into the hands of educators, Worden said.

"Contrary to what people think, we can't just raise teacher salaries, it doesn't work that way... You have to get really creative with your funding," he added.

The salary dilemma is one of the biggest arguments for creating educator housing, said Van Schoales, senior policy director at the Keystone Policy Center, a consulting nonprofit that released a report last year analyzing efforts to build teacher housing in the western U.S.

“Even with some fairly dramatic increases, it’s still trailing the cost of housing in those communities," he said, referring to expensive housing markets in California and some communities in Colorado known for their vacation destinations.

"The real story here is a broken funding model for education in the state of Colorado," said Matthew Miano, chief communications officer for Eagle County School District, which opened up 10 of its first 37 teacher housing units in October near Aspen, known for its ski resorts and luxurious destinations.

Kansas City teacher made the best out of a bad situation

Wall, who teaches seventh and eighth graders, said he made it through homelessness by always reminding himself that the bad situation didn't outweigh the good things in life.

But Wall said his worst experience living unhoused came after one midnight during winter break. He had no money, his car had just run out of gas and the freezing temperatures were starting to hit his body, he said.

“It’s not the physical feeling that was so painful, it was how lonely it was," Wall said. "That’s what stuck with me, is that I’ve never felt so by myself."

The one silver lining of Wall's situation was investing more in his classroom and his students, he said, spending money on plush rugs, soft lighting and Marvel superhero decor to make it feel colorful and cozy.

He may have been homeless, but he also provided the best learning environment for his students, Wall said.

Now, he's able to access the best home environment for himself too.

"My surrounding matches the inside of what I feel," Wall said. "I know I'm the best teacher."