South City takes another look at teacher housing

But as the housing crisis continues to squeeze locals amidst a statewide teaching shortage, officials suggested a proposal to rebuild surplus school property into a workforce housing development remains worth examining.

Shawnterra Moore, superintendent of the South San Francisco Unified School District, characterized the discussions as preliminary while noting the potential for the two agencies to collectively address the issue.

“There is a collaborative spirit and willingness to partner, but we are just in the information gathering stage,” she said.

Officials have previously identified 7 acres of school district land at the former Foxridge Elementary School campus which could accommodate residential development.

City Manager Mike Futrell said the site could host as many as 75 townhomes to be set aside at an affordable price for school teachers, and pointed to recent legislation potentially facilitating the initiative.

“We certainly see there is an opportunity to successfully build teacher housing in South San Francisco, but we recognize that the land is owned by the school district and the proposal would be to benefit teachers in the school district, so ultimately the decision is with the school system,” he said.

The legislative momentum Futrell cites was established in part by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, whose bill last year was signed easing the path for school systems seeking to build teacher housing on underutilized land. Futrell also noted additional legislation making it easier to finance the projects with tax credits.

“With those barriers removed, it does make sense to strongly pursue this,” he said.

Futrell added the discussion was requested by Mayor Liza Normandy and Vice Mayor Karyl Matsumoto.

“This was borne out of genuine concern that we are able to attract and retain the best teachers,” he said.

Moore though suggested the issue required further examination, as school officials last gauged employees a couple years ago and found mixed results.

Fifty-seven percent of the surveyed employees said they would be at least somewhat interested in an affordable workforce housing project, as 65 percent of the participants are renters and many are frustrated with the expense of living locally. Of those supporting the initiative, 45 percent said they would be very interested and 12 percent said they would be somewhat interested, according to a 2016 survey.

Moore suggested it may be worth again testing the interest of school employees for such an opportunity, especially new hires potentially moving to the area who could be discouraged by the high cost of living locally.

The district’s appetite for the project could be enhanced should city officials identify financing options or other ways to potentially move the process ahead, she said.

“There haven’t been specifics identified as to what the city would be able to do, and that may be coming up at the meeting,” she said. “If so, then that will be for our staff and board members to determine what the next step is, if there is a next step.”

Futrell said city officials hold some money and experience which could be useful.

“As a partnership between the city and the school district, the city has some affordable housing funds which we can explore devoting to this project,” he said. “The city has a track record of successfully building affordable housing and we can bring this to table too.”

For his part, Futrell expressed confidence the project was viable and necessary, but ultimately deferred to school officials.

“Financially this is feasible. This can be done. The real issue is whether that is something the school district wants to do? And if so, do they want to work with the city? And that is the discussion that councilmembers should have directly with trustees.”

Meanwhile Moore said educators will continue examining opportunities for the district property.

“This is really just preliminary. We are looking at if there is an interest. And then looking at the data to determine if this is something we should look forward to and prioritize,” she said.

The school and city liaison committee meeting will start 3 p.m. Friday, July 27, in City Hall’s second-floor conference room.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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