August 8, 2016

D.C. Unveiling Affordable Teacher Housing Co-located with Charter Schools

By Bellwether

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UPDATE: So far I’ve only found one other example of a complex that includes both affordable teacher housing AND a charter school facility. My Bellwether colleague Kyndall Parker-Joseph alerted me to Teachers Village in Newark, NJ.
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In The Washington Post, Perry Stein writes about a new private apartment building in Washington, D.C. that will offer subsidized housing to city teachers:

The residential units are aimed at young teachers without families who are on the low end of the teacher pay scale. Building Hope wants the residences to serve as an incentive for top young teachers who might otherwise be dissuaded from accepting jobs in the District because of the city’s high cost of living.

The building, a converted Catholic dormitory and study space, will also house two charter schools. The whole complex is a project of the Charter School Incubator Initiative, which seeks to address the well-documented facilities challenges faced by charter schools.

Photo of former St. Paul's College via Google Maps

Photo of former St. Paul’s College via Google Maps


Could this be a model used elsewhere to attract educators to expensive cities while also addressing a critical challenge for charter schools? Similar efforts to create affordable rental units for teachers exist in high-cost cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the merger of housing with a school building could be a first.

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