Another Bay Area school district invests in teacher housing. Will it help retain employees?
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12-08-2025
- Yahoo
Paxos is applying to become a US bank — Here's why that matters
Paxos, the company that issues PayPal's $1 billion stablecoin, has applied for a national trust bank charter in the US, becoming the latest crypto company to pursue becoming a Federally-regulated bank in the US. It's a move that could give Paxos a gloss of establishment respectability, and a direct presence in America's financial sector. If approved, Paxos will be able to operate across the US without navigating the patchwork of local banking licences. However, while an approval would allow Paxos to hold customer assets and settle transactions, it won't act as a traditional lender that can accept deposits and issue loans. Paxos' charter application comes at a time when Washington, under the Trump administration, has warmed up to crypto. In July, President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law, effectively legalising stablecoins in the US. Circle and Ripple Paxos is the latest crypto company to pursue banking charter status. Circle and Ripple both applied earlier this summer. Chris Colson, payments guru at the Atlanta Federal Reserve, told DL News that an approval would enhance trust in their respective stablecoins. 'It potentially paves the way for broader institutional and cross-border adoption,' he said. Yet, those US banking charter ambitions rely on the hope that the regulatory thaw has extended to the US Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the agency that licenses and supervises all national banks. An OCC charter has been a tough nut to crack for crypto companies. Only one firm, Anchorage Digital, has been able to scale the process. Paxos itself tried to obtain a national bank charter in 2020 but its application stalled and expired in 2023. Earlier in August, the stablecoin issuer settled with the New York Department of Financial Services for $26.5 million over its alleged failure to conduct due diligence on Binance. Paxos was the issuer behind Binance's BUSD stablecoin, which once peaked at $23 billion in market value. Crypto market movers Bitcoin is down 1.4% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $118,433. Ethereum is up 2.6% in the same period to $4,295. What we're reading Trump Media brings Truth token plans into the open in latest SEC filing — DL News White House Crypto Advisor Bo Hines Steps Down — Unchained Do Kwon May Plead Guilty in US Case Over $40 Billion Terraform Collapse — Bloomberg Ether Breaks $4,000 as Spot ETFs Get Massive Inflows — Unchained Crypto law bonanza raises concerns around whether agency staff can regulate groundswell — DL News Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@ — DL News Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Yahoo
Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Files Motion to Dismiss $1.8B FTX Lawsuit
The founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has filed a motion to dismiss a $1.76 billion lawsuit brought against him, Binance and other Binance executives by the FTX bankruptcy estate. Zhao's lawyers argue that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over him in the case and that he was improperly served. The motion, submitted Monday to the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, contends that the legal complaint fails on multiple technical fronts. Zhao, who lists his residence as the United Arab Emirates, claims the lawsuit violated procedural norms when serving him as a non-U.S. national. The filing also asserts that Delaware courts have no personal jurisdiction over him because he has no meaningful ties to the state. "Mr. Zhao is not amenable to suit in this forum, and the statutes Plaintiffs seek to enforce do not reach the extraterritorial transactions described in the Complaint," the filing stated. "The claims are in any event legally unfounded, and many are outright incoherent. Mr. Zhao joins the motions to dismiss filed by the other Defendants," it added, referring to two similar dismissal attempts filed by other Binance executives in July. The FTX lawsuit Zhao is attempting to fend off a lawsuit originally filed in November 2024 by FTX Digital Markets Ltd. and the FTX Trading estate. The suit seeks to claw back $1.76 billion worth of crypto assets that were transferred to Binance in July 2021 as part of an equity repurchase deal. That deal involved FTX buying back a 20% stake Binance held in the exchange. The relationship between the two began in 2019, back when Binance was one of FTX's earliest backers, but later turned sour. FTX Sues Binance for $1.76 Billion, Accuses CZ of 'Reckless Disregard' for Its Customers According to the suit, Sam Bankman-Fried orchestrated the buyback using a mix of FTX-issued FTT tokens and Binance-branded assets like BUSD, later identified as funds that were allegedly misappropriated from customer deposits. The FTX estate, now managed by a restructuring team, argued the transfer was fraudulent and is seeking to recover the assets to help repay the creditors burned by FTX's 2022 implosion. In the filing, Zhao's legal team also argues that he never directly received the funds in question. 'Plaintiffs in fact show that Mr. Zhao was not a transferee,' the motion stated. 'They allege he was merely a nominal counterparty in the transfer of BUSD from Alameda LTD to Binance.' The document insisted Zhao was just a 'nominal signatory' and not the actual recipient of the assets. FTX and Binance The lawsuit goes beyond the repurchase itself, accusing Zhao of playing a broader role in destabilizing FTX. In particular, it points to a November 2022 tweet from Zhao that triggered a cascade of customer withdrawals from FTX and a run that contributed to the exchange's collapse. Caroline Ellison, former CEO of FTX-affiliated Alameda Research, testified during the Bankman-Fried trial that Alameda had to borrow over $1 billion in customer funds to pay for the Binance buyback. Prosecutors argued FTX and Alameda were likely insolvent even before the repurchase occurred. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Zhao himself also served a four-month sentence in the U.S. last year after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering rules as part of a broader $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and U.S. regulators. He stepped down as Binance CEO as part of that deal. Sign in to access your portfolio
CBS News
31-07-2025
- CBS News
Legal recreational marijuana sales set to begin Aug. 1 in Delaware
More than two years after legalizing recreational marijuana, Delaware dispensaries will be able to sell to customers starting Friday. Six businesses that were involved in medical sales will be able to begin their recreational sales at a total of 13 locations, Gov. Matt Meyer's office said in a news release. More locations will be opened The drug became legal in the First State after former Gov. John Carney declined to veto two bills concerning the recreational use of the drug. Carney, a Democrat who now serves as mayor of Wilmington, said he opposed legalization out of concern for young people and safety on the state's roads. In 2023, he allowed the bills to pass without a signature after indicating the state had "spent far too much time focused on this issue" and that it was "time to move on." The year prior, he vetoed bills on the same topic, spurring a failed attempt by House Democrats to override his veto. Meyer, Carney's successor, visited a cannabis grow facility operated by First State Compassion in Milford on Wednesday. He and Marijuana Commissioner Josh Sanderlin also met with students from Delaware Technical Community College who are part of the state's cannabis workforce training initiative, Meyer's office said. He projected the industry would generate $40 million in annual revenue. "The students at Del Tech who are already training to work in this new industry are an indicator that the future is bright. We're committed to doing this the right way — with strong safety standards, quality training, and product testing that ensures Delawareans have access to safe, reliable cannabis. Delaware will truly be the French wine of weed," Meyer said. Delaware opened applications for its license lottery in August 2024, and received 1,269 applications for 125 available licenses — a number that includes 60 recreational grow facilities, 30 retail stores, 30 manufacturing locations and five testing facilities.
