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.

2 minute read

June 8, 2025, 11:00 AM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Rendering of Shirley Chisholm Village four-story housing development with person biking in front.

Shirley Chisholm Village offers housing to all qualifying households, prioritizing SFUSD educators and employees. | MidPen Housing / Shirley Chisholm Village

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.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 in Fast Company

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

June 18, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Rendering of Shirley Chisholm Village four-story housing development with person biking in front.

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.

June 8, 2025 - Fast Company

Woman and young girl looking at subway map, woman pointing.

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.

June 9, 2025 - John Pobojewski

Close-up of cracked and damaged two-lane roadway with double yellow stripes on a bright sunny day.

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.

June 19 - Transportation for America

Group of e-scooters messily parked on street in London with black cab in background.

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.

June 19 - Bloomberg CityLab

Map of Western U.S. indicating public lands that would be for sale under a Senate plan in yellow and green.

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.”

June 19 - Outdoor Life