San Diego Unified would grow to be one of many first college districts within the county to supply inexpensive housing only for its workers if voters cross a $3.2 billion bond measure this November.
The college district hopes to construct 500 items of inexpensive housing on the location of its present headquarters at 4100 Regular Avenue in College Heights. The housing would value $226 million to construct, mentioned district spokesperson Samer Naji.
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“That’s an essential part of the bond measure — to have the ability to entice and retain the workers we have to run our colleges,” mentioned Lee Dulgeroff, chief amenities, planning and development officer for San Diego Unified.
Along with worker housing, Measure U would pay for extra renovations and new college buildings as a part of the district’s in depth amenities upgrading effort, which already consists of three present bond measures totaling $8.3 billion permitted by voters since 2008.
The district is promoting the brand new measure as one that will additional enhance college safety within the wake of shootings just like the one this 12 months in Uvalde, Texas, in addition to create new classroom amenities for the district’s enlargement of transitional kindergarten.
Measure U wouldn’t increase the present tax charge as a result of it could substitute a bond measure that’s expiring this 12 months, Dulgeroff mentioned.
A small however rising variety of California districts is pursuing bond measures to construct inexpensive housing as a means to assist recruit and retain college workers, as rents and residential costs hold rising.
The concept has gained traction throughout the nation and in California, which handed a state legislation in 2016 that enables college districts to construct inexpensive housing reserved for workers. Greater than 40 college districts have pursued such initiatives, researchers at UCLA and UC Berkeley present in a 2021 report.
At the very least six California districts have gotten bond measures permitted by voters to fund inexpensive worker housing, in line with the report. That features native Chula Vista Elementary, which barely handed a bond measure in 2020 to construct 100 items of worker housing costing $65 million. The district has not began constructing the housing but.
The common asking hire for a one-bedroom residence in San Diego metropolis is now $2,200 a month, in line with actual property tracker CoStar. That’s greater than half of what a trainer paid the district’s beginning wage of $50,744 would make every month earlier than taxes.
The district hasn’t mentioned how a lot the hire can be for any inexpensive housing, however officers mentioned it could probably be priced at round half the market charge.
Such a components would differ from federal definitions of inexpensive housing, that are based mostly on the realm median earnings moderately than market rents.
The college board would finally resolve rents and eligibility, and the district wouldn’t use the worker housing to generate a web revenue, Naji mentioned.
The district expects many workers can be all for inexpensive housing, Naji mentioned, on condition that many have already voiced curiosity within the inexpensive residences provided for most of the people at Livia. That new growth was constructed on the district’s former Scripps Elementary web site as a part of a long-term lease partnership with Essex Property Belief and Monarch Group.
The district is planning to pursue an analogous long-term lease with a developer for the present Metropolis Heights web site of Central Elementary, which is being moved to Wilson Center close by to create a brand new, bond-funded mixed campus. The plan is for that web site additionally to incorporate inexpensive housing — however as with Livia, the housing there can be open to most of the people, not created solely for district workers like that at Regular Avenue.
It’s unclear what number of San Diego Unified lecturers would qualify for the district’s deliberate inexpensive housing.
The common San Diego Unified trainer made about $88,000 a 12 months through the 2020-2021 college 12 months, in line with state information.
And the district’s beginning trainer wage is simply too excessive, for instance, for a first-year trainer dwelling alone to qualify for the inexpensive residences at Livia, the place hire for a one-bedroom unit begins at $1,220. The utmost earnings for a single particular person to qualify for a type of is $45,550, which is half the realm median earnings.
Whereas some lecturers would possibly make an excessive amount of, inexpensive housing may gain advantage most of the district’s non-teacher workers who make considerably lower than lecturers, typically as little because the minimal wage.
The inexpensive housing can be one a part of a large-scale reshuffling of district property that can roll out over the following few years.
The district will transfer its headquarters from its Regular Avenue web site and substitute it with the worker housing, in addition to group facilities that would embody an off-leash canine park, Dulgeroff mentioned.
The district plans to revive its on-site Regular Faculty Annex 1, a 1910 constructing that was as soon as used for coaching San Diego State scholar lecturers and is now listed within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
The district’s new headquarters might be constructed on an eight-acre web site of the previous headquarters of the fast-food chain Jack within the Field at 9330 Balboa Avenue in Kearny Mesa. The district purchased the property for $21.5 million in 2019.
The brand new headquarters will contain 150,000 sq. ft of renovation and 60,000 sq. ft of latest development, to be funded with present bond cash from Measure YY, Naji mentioned.
The plan is to partially demolish and transform an present two-story workplace constructing and construct a brand new two-story constructing with workplace house, an auditorium and a parking construction in addition to a brand new one-story constructing with an entry gallery and workplace house, Naji mentioned.
The renovation and development are anticipated to begin subsequent fall and conclude in late 2026, Naji mentioned.
Central Elementary will mix with Wilson Center on the newly-built George Walker Smith Instructional Campus in Metropolis Heights. The brand new campus consists of lecture rooms constructed for music, engineering, performing arts and different packages at Wilson, and a group clinic and well being middle, three new play areas, a daycare and extra at Central.
