Another Bay Area school district invests in teacher housing. Will it help retain employees?
The Berkeley Unified School District broke ground recently on a 110-unit affordable apartment complex for teachers and staff.
The six-story complex will occupy a portion of the Berkeley Adult School parking lot at 1701 San Pablo Ave. when it opens in 2027.
The $78 million project adds Berkeley Unified to a growing list of Bay Area school districts backing affordable housing for teachers and other district employees. The projects aim to prevent high housing costs from forcing teachers in the Bay Area to take on additional jobs, face long commutes or relocate to other districts altogether. Educator housing has also seen support from state policies like the Teacher Housing Act of 2016, which allowed districts to limit spots in affordable developments to educators and staff.
Still, the push for teacher and staff housing is early and quite limited. California has only 12 education workforce housing projects that are occupied, near completion or under construction, according to a recent report from the California School Boards Association and researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Over half of the projects are located in the Bay Area, in cities like Santa Clara, Daly City, Mountain View and San Francisco. Still, the state has nearly 1,000 districts, meaning these subsidized units aren't a reality for most teachers.
San Francisco's school district recently opened its first teacher and staff housing project, with a few more in the works. Shirley Chisholm Village — an Outer Sunset affordable housing complex developed with MidPen Housing — is now at full capacity, with 120 of 135 units occupied by district educators and employees, according to Lyn Hikida, a spokesperson at MidPen.
In Berkeley, apartments will feature one, two or three bedrooms, with monthly rents estimated to range from $876 to $3,400, depending on household size and income. Renters will also have access to a shared resident center and a parking garage.
Households earning between 30% and 120% of area median income — ranging from $47,940 to $191,760 for a family of four in Alameda County — are eligible and priority will be given to district employees.
The average 2023-24 salary for a certified BUSD teacher was roughly $100,000, according to the California Department of Education. Last month, a California Housing Partnership report found that Alameda County renters must make a $50.73 hourly wage — or an annual income of just about $105,000 — to be able to afford the average monthly asking rent of $2,638 for a two-bedroom apartment.
The new project means that 'BUSD employees will have opportunities to live in the community they serve, which for many has been out of reach for a long time,' wrote Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, in a statement to the Chronicle. 'We are best able to serve our students when we live in their community.'
The district expects the project to help its efforts to 'recruit and retain high quality educators' and staff 'who must grapple with the high cost of living in Berkeley and the Bay Area,' BUSD spokesperson Trish McDermott said in a statement.
But whether this type of affordable development increases teacher and staff retention is still unclear. Centralized data on vacancies and turnover rates is unavailable, the CSBA report says, though anecdotal evidence appears hopeful.
Interviews conducted with school districts that have developed affordable housing for staff have indicated that the availability of housing was a draw for new hires, the report found. Surveys of tenants also revealed that new hires found job offers that included affordable housing options particularly attractive.
Berkeley-based developer Satellite Affordable Housing Associates will open applications for the complex six months before project completion. SAHA and co-developer Abode Communities will own and operate the property, according to Megan Folland, Abode's vice president for advancement.
BUSD plans to prioritize units for full-time district employees who are homeless, followed by part-time employees who are homeless and then full-time employees and finally part-time employees. The district didn't immediately respond to a question about whether any employees are currently homeless.
The project's funding comes from voter-approved city bonds and other financing mechanisms.
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San Francisco Chronicle
13-06-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Another Bay Area school district invests in teacher housing. Will it help retain employees?
The Berkeley Unified School District broke ground recently on a 110-unit affordable apartment complex for teachers and staff. The six-story complex will occupy a portion of the Berkeley Adult School parking lot at 1701 San Pablo Ave. when it opens in 2027. The $78 million project adds Berkeley Unified to a growing list of Bay Area school districts backing affordable housing for teachers and other district employees. The projects aim to prevent high housing costs from forcing teachers in the Bay Area to take on additional jobs, face long commutes or relocate to other districts altogether. Educator housing has also seen support from state policies like the Teacher Housing Act of 2016, which allowed districts to limit spots in affordable developments to educators and staff. Still, the push for teacher and staff housing is early and quite limited. California has only 12 education workforce housing projects that are occupied, near completion or under construction, according to a recent report from the California School Boards Association and researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Over half of the projects are located in the Bay Area, in cities like Santa Clara, Daly City, Mountain View and San Francisco. Still, the state has nearly 1,000 districts, meaning these subsidized units aren't a reality for most teachers. San Francisco's school district recently opened its first teacher and staff housing project, with a few more in the works. Shirley Chisholm Village — an Outer Sunset affordable housing complex developed with MidPen Housing — is now at full capacity, with 120 of 135 units occupied by district educators and employees, according to Lyn Hikida, a spokesperson at MidPen. In Berkeley, apartments will feature one, two or three bedrooms, with monthly rents estimated to range from $876 to $3,400, depending on household size and income. Renters will also have access to a shared resident center and a parking garage. Households earning between 30% and 120% of area median income — ranging from $47,940 to $191,760 for a family of four in Alameda County — are eligible and priority will be given to district employees. The average 2023-24 salary for a certified BUSD teacher was roughly $100,000, according to the California Department of Education. Last month, a California Housing Partnership report found that Alameda County renters must make a $50.73 hourly wage — or an annual income of just about $105,000 — to be able to afford the average monthly asking rent of $2,638 for a two-bedroom apartment. The new project means that 'BUSD employees will have opportunities to live in the community they serve, which for many has been out of reach for a long time,' wrote Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, in a statement to the Chronicle. 'We are best able to serve our students when we live in their community.' The district expects the project to help its efforts to 'recruit and retain high quality educators' and staff 'who must grapple with the high cost of living in Berkeley and the Bay Area,' BUSD spokesperson Trish McDermott said in a statement. But whether this type of affordable development increases teacher and staff retention is still unclear. Centralized data on vacancies and turnover rates is unavailable, the CSBA report says, though anecdotal evidence appears hopeful. Interviews conducted with school districts that have developed affordable housing for staff have indicated that the availability of housing was a draw for new hires, the report found. Surveys of tenants also revealed that new hires found job offers that included affordable housing options particularly attractive. Berkeley-based developer Satellite Affordable Housing Associates will open applications for the complex six months before project completion. SAHA and co-developer Abode Communities will own and operate the property, according to Megan Folland, Abode's vice president for advancement. BUSD plans to prioritize units for full-time district employees who are homeless, followed by part-time employees who are homeless and then full-time employees and finally part-time employees. The district didn't immediately respond to a question about whether any employees are currently homeless. The project's funding comes from voter-approved city bonds and other financing mechanisms.
Business Journals
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Section 144: Comprehensive safe harbor framework Defining the 'controlling stockholder' The amendments provide a statutory definition of a 'controlling stockholder' as one who: Owns or controls a majority of voting stock entitled to vote in director elections Can appoint directors with majority voting power, or Has equivalent control by holding at least 33.33% of the corporation's voting stock and managerial authority over the corporation Three distinct safe harbor paths The amendments establish differentiated approval requirements for interested transactions based on the specific conflict scenario: 1. Majority interested board safe harbor For transactions involving a majority interested board, the amendments provide a safe harbor from both equitable relief and damages liability through either: Approval by an independent committee comprising at least two disinterested directors, or Approval or ratification by a majority of the votes cast by disinterested stockholders Notably, the director safe harbor no longer requires conditioning approval before the start of substantive economic negotiations, though the board must determine all committee members are disinterested. For stockholder approval, the 'votes cast' standard replaces the previous 'outstanding' shares standard. 2. Conflicted controller/non-go-private transactions For transactions where a controlling stockholder has a conflict but is not taking the company private: Safe harbor is available through either: Approval by an independent committee comprising at least two disinterested directors, or Approval or ratification by a majority of the votes cast by disinterested stockholders This effectively overrules prior case law requiring both protections for such transactions. 3. Conflicted controller / go-private safe harbor For transactions where a controlling stockholder is taking the company private: Safe harbor requires both: This codifies the dual-protection framework from Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. (MFW) while eliminating the 'ab initio' requirement that these protections be implemented before the start of substantive economic negotiations. 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