With the addition of a proposal approved in December, the district has advanced proposals to build a total number of 2,500 units. That\u2019s nearly triple the number of such units built throughout California. The district\u2019s potential housing portfolio jumps to more than 2,800 units when you add the district\u2019s sole existing complex<\/a> and another planned project<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n What stands out in San Diego Unified\u2019s recent housing decisions is that district officials didn\u2019t just go big, they uniformly went as big as they possibly could. Experts say the district\u2019s unprecedented moves could be the tipping point of a years-long, but slow growing, movement to build housing on K-12 district owned land in California.\u00a0<\/p>\n But even as officials watch the efforts with elation, there are a slew of unknowns to be figured out.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego Unified is positioning itself as the undisputed leader in workforce housing in the state, and actually in the country,\u201d said Greg Francis, the education workforce housing project lead at the California School Boards Association. \u201cThe district is setting a new bar and other districts should be inspired by what they\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Slow Start and the Tipping Point\u00a0<\/p>\n Affordable education workforce housing gained considerable momentum<\/a> with the release of a 2022 report that found that California districts had at least 75,000 acres of developable land<\/a>. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has been a cheerleader of the approach, advocating for districts to build 2.3 million units of housing<\/a>. That sum could nearly wipe out California\u2019s housing shortage<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s why lawmakers have also sought to grease districts\u2019 housing wheels in recent years, passing multiple laws that do things like remove rezoning requirements for housing on district land<\/a> and exempts such projects from environmental reviews<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n For proponents of affordable education workforce housing, the strategy is a sort of twofer. If built at scale, they could help ease the housing crisis that\u2019s gripped California. The units may also decrease costs for often financially burdened school staff, helping districts recruit and retain employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n In areas with eye popping housing costs, like San Diego, the impact may be especially impactful, said Kyle Weinberg, the president of San Diego Unified\u2019s teachers union. Those costs exacerbate districts\u2019 struggles to fill hard to staff positions like special education teachers, and also chase away families with young children, fueling the the region\u2019s enrollment decline crisis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEducators are feeling the brunt of the regional housing crisis,\u201d Weinberg said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have declining enrollment in schools that then lead to layoffs and transfers that destabilize our school communities. That\u2019s why we made affordable housing a priority for our union.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, despite the enthusiasm, a paltry number of units have been built thus far. That\u2019s frustrated some researchers, like Dana Cuff founder of cityLAB,<\/a> a center in UCLA\u2019s architecture and urban design department that helped author the 2022 report that identified district housing as such an opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe process \u2026 is much slower than we might have originally imagined, which is really shocking, given all of our research shows these developments are an unqualified success for districts,\u201d Cuff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cuff points to reports that show that existing workforce housing routinely fills up and often accrues waiting lists. San Diego Unified officials, for example, say they received 2,000 applications for the 54 units that went up for rent at its sole existing complex.\u00a0<\/p>\n That opportunity is why she thinks San Diego Unified\u2019s moves could be such a gamechanger.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think once San Diego is successful at this, other districts are going to follow suit,\u201d Cuff said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A More Expansive Affordability\u00a0<\/p>\n The district\u2019s recent leap into housing has been years in the making<\/a>. But the scale is entirely new.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s because during their decisions, the board embraced a simple mantra: more. Instead of weighing projects based on how affordable the units they proposed were, at every site trustees chose the proposal that would produce the highest number of units.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That produced even more units than officials had set their sights on. Initially, the board aimed to create housing for 10 percent of its district staff \u2013 about 1,500 units. The nearly 2,500 they greenlit would fit closer to 17 percent of its staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n In prioritizing quantity, the board disregarded all of the recommendations made by a district committee that reviewed the proposals, which seemed to place a priority on price of units rather than number.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the district\u2019s YIMBY-maxing inspired some protest from local residents, there seemed to be just as much enthusiasm for it. When the district first began pondering big housing moves nearly a decade ago, that balance was drastically different, Board President Richard Barrera said. He thinks it\u2019s a sign of the times.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cI think that reflects the degree to which housing affordability has just become the issue. Not only for a school district, but for people in this city,\u201d Barrera said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even given the more expensive units, all of them met the district\u2019s bar for affordable housing. That more expansive definition stipulated that an affordable unit is one that costs no more than 30 percent of an employee\u2019s pay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n So, even units that would cost 30 percent of the pay of employees who made well over the area median income \u2013 of which there are hundreds across the projects \u2013 were considered affordable. That eschews the standard method by which federal and state agencies determine affordable housing, which ties rent prices to a region\u2019s area median income.\u00a0<\/p>\n The district\u2019s method was useful because not all of its employees are eligible to live in traditional affordable housing. Other districts that have faced this paradox, like Los Angeles Unified, have found that their teachers made too much to qualify for the affordable units they built for them<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe push got us to more of that middle income teacher housing and family housing,\u201d Barrera said. \u201cWe were able to get more and provide more affordability to a group of employees that are typically excluded from affordable housing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While a significant step, though, the votes don\u2019t seal the deal. They essentially just authorized district staff to begin final negotiations and due diligence on each of the proposals. And the board already had a number of directives for negotiations, from trying to bring down rents to adding additional parking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018San Diego Is the First District to Really Go Deep on This\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Exactly how this process will continue to unfold, and how it will work long-term, is still something of an open question. Construction projects face infinite hiccups and renderings never quite come true. Barrera said he\u2019s paying closest attention to whether developers can actually secure the financing they said they could.\u00a0<\/p>\n The unknowns are also amplified because San Diego Unified\u2019s approach to building affordable education workforce housing is extremely unique.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead of building housing with district money, they opened up the process to developers to pitch joint-occupancy projects. That gave them less control over proposals but also meant they wouldn\u2019t have to foot the bill for planning or construction and could make some dough from leasing the land to chosen developers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The projects they advanced could bring billions in revenue into the district over the proposed 99-year lease terms. Board members, however, made clear they\u2019d prefer to rake in less dough if developers could bring rents down.\u00a0<\/p>\n The joint-occupancy model also required developers to create district uses at each of the sites. At the largest of the five sites, a proposed 1,500-unit development on the district\u2019s former headquarters in University Heights, developers pitched a public pool, sports courts, parks, retail and a teacher training facility. At multiple other sites, developers plan to build childcare centers for district staff.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego is the first district to really go deep on this,\u201d said Francis, the CSBA project lead. \u201cA lot of people just don\u2019t know about this option yet. Our role, we feel, at CSBA is to really spotlight this and get the word out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The organization is so bullish about the strategy\u2019s potential that they\u2019ve scheduled a workshop at the Livia complex<\/a>, an existing development on San Diego Unified-owned land in Scripps Ranch. The site is the only existing joint occupancy educator workforce housing project in California. In addition to 53 units for district employees, it features more than 200 market rate units and a newly opened STEAM for district students<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There are also still a whole slew of questions to be answered about how the complexes will work day to day. What happens when a district educator takes a job elsewhere? How will applicants for units be prioritized should there be a waitlist?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Officials approved a resolution<\/a> last January that lays out recommendations for how the projects should operate. They include everything from discouraging application fees to union-friendly policies to setting timelines for continued eligibility should a resident be laid off (39 months) or leave voluntarily (12 months, or end of lease, whichever is greater.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Those recommendations, however, are just that \u2013 recommendations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trustee Cody Petterson said that finalizing details like this will be a key part of the district\u2019s work in the coming months. The goal is also to iron out any kinks in the process, so it can be shared with officials excited about the strategy\u2019s potential. Petterson said he\u2019s already heard from a slew of local officials eyeing the possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve used zero taxpayer dollars, we\u2019ve lost no land and we\u2019re going to get thousands of units of housing,\u201d Petterson said. \u201cIf we can improve and tighten up our process so it can be generalized across the 1,000 districts in California, it has the possibility to establish a whole new paradigm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A New Housing Authority in Town\u00a0<\/p>\n These five projects, however large, aren\u2019t the end of the district\u2019s housing plans. Barrera said they\u2019re eyeing four more potential sites for which requests for proposals could be issued as early as this year. There\u2019s also the $206 million in Measure U bond funds the district set aside to build housing<\/a>, none of which was touched.\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking forward, San Diego Unified Superintendent Fabiola Bagula has her heart set on creating more permanent housing opportunities for district employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud of what we accomplished, but I\u2019m also going to pursue this notion around how might we offer this housing to new teachers to recruit them and then potentially actually help them become homeowners?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But another move from the district could prove to be even more impactful.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/LMEC_0020-1024x683.jpg\")
A teacher speaks to eighth-grade students at Logan Memorial Educational Campus in Logan Heights on Nov. 7, 2025. Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vito-di-stefano-1-26-26-7-1024x684.jpg\")
Board trustees and district officials during a San Diego Unified School Board meeting on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. The board listens to presentations for proposed housing developments. \/ Vito Di Stefano for Voice of San Diego<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vito-di-stefano-1-26-26-3-1-1024x684.jpg\")
People walk to the San Diego Unified School District office in University Heights on Monday, Jan. 26th, 2026. \/ Vito Di Stefano for Voice of San Diego<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bethune_0003-1024x683.jpg\")
Fabiloa Bagula, superintendent for the San Diego Unified School District, during a community meeting at Bethune K-8 School on Sept. 24, 2025 at Bay Terraces. \/ Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego<\/p>\n