The San Diego Unified Board of Education is holding special meetings on Monday and Tuesday to select housing development proposals for four district properties. The board selected a proposal to develop housing on a fifth property in December.
The district’s goal is to build 1,500 affordable apartments to house its employees and their families, including studios and units with up to three bedrooms.
The district is interested in proposals that would be affordable for employees at different income levels — from custodians to teachers, said Richard Barrera, president of the board.
“The definition of affordability that we've been clear about is we don't want our employees to pay more than 30% of their family income on rent, but which of that group of employees will be prioritized, the different developers came with different ideas around that,” Barrera said.
All three companies that bid on developing the Eugene Brucker Education Center — the district’s administrative headquarters in University Heights — proposed 700 or more units, making it the largest of the five development sites.
On Monday night, the board voted to advance the largest of three proposals for that site.
They selected a proposal from Protea + Malick that included 1,500 apartment units that the developer said would be affordable for staff earning between 50% Area Median Income (AMI) and 120% AMI — currently $80,700 to $156,950 for a family of four in San Diego County.
The board also voted to advance Mirka Investment's proposal for the district's Commercial Street property, which would build 174 units of workforce housing for staff earning between 30% AMI to 80 % AMI — currently $49,600 to $132,400 for a family of four in San Diego County.
In December, the board selected a third developer proposing to build a 108-unit project at the district’s Instructional Media Center in Birdland.
Proposals for the other two sites where the district plans to build workforce housing — the Revere Center in Linda Vista and the Fremont/Ballard Center in Old Town — are expected to be selected Tuesday evening.
A district workforce housing survey found that most staff have considered leaving the district due to high housing costs, according to a staff presentation.
Barrera said the plan to develop affordable workforce housing is “such an important strategy to recruit and retain quality employees in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.”
After proposals are selected, the district will begin negotiations with the chosen developer before a final plan returns to the board later this year, Barrera said.
