SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
The San Francisco Unified School District opened its first affordable housing development, Shirley Chisholm Village, “a 135-unit housing complex in San Francisco’s oceanside Sunset District. Built on district-owned land, with affordable rents and preference given to SFUSD educators.”
As Nate Berg explains in Fast Company, “The $105 million project was developed by the nonprofit MidPen Housing with a design by San Francisco-based BAR Architects & Interiors in association with G7A | Gonzales Architects, and in coordination with the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.”
The units are reserved for residents who make between 30 and 100 percent of the area median income and represent a growing movement by school districts to use their resources to provide workforce housing for educators and district employees. The district has three additional housing projects in the works.
The building includes a fifth floor work-from-home area and gathering space separate from the private living spaces. “Though the project was not required to include parking under the city’s zoning code, the developers chose to include some underground spaces, partly to assuage neighborhood concerns about street parking and partly at the request of the educators who helped guide the design process.”
Prior to the housing development, the lot was vacant, with the community using it as a park. To address the loss of this communal space, the development includes a public plaza, playground, and seating area accessible from the street.
FULL STORY: San Francisco transformed an old parking lot into affordable housing for public school teachers
San Diego School District Could Accelerate Workforce Housing Program
A proposal to build housing on five district-owned properties could yield 1,000 housing units for low- and moderate-income district employees.
Colorado Town Fills Workforce Housing Need With ‘Dorm-Style’ Housing
Median rent in Steamboat Springs is $4,000 per month.
High Housing Costs Driving Down Transit Ridership in LA
When neighborhoods gentrify and displace lower-income residents, transit ridership suffers, new research shows.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
Can We Please Give Communities the Design They Deserve?
Often an afterthought, graphic design impacts everything from how we navigate a city to how we feel about it. One designer argues: the people deserve better.
Engineers Gave America's Roads an Almost Failing Grade — Why Aren't We Fixing Them?
With over a trillion dollars spent on roads that are still falling apart, advocates propose a new “fix it first” framework.
The European Cities That Love E-Scooters — And Those That Don’t
Where they're working, where they're banned, and where they're just as annoying the tourists that use them.
Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Borough of Carlisle
Smith Gee Studio
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)