School’s no longer out for summer, and some teachers in a California district are struggling to find affordable housing.
As a solution, the district has asked parents to let teachers move in.
The Washington Post reports how the Milpitas Unified School District—which is located in the San Francisco Bay area—lost 10 teachers last school year because they couldn’t afford rent prices. Potential new employees, too, were driven away by the large dollar signs.
“We’ve lost out on some employees that we tried to recruit because once they see how much it costs to live here, they determine it’s just not possible,” tells district superintendent, Cheryl Jordan to KNTV.
In order to retain their staff, the district sent out an email to parents asking them to fill out a form that would allow for them to rent out their homes to educators.
The form asks for things such as basic contact information plus the number of rooms that would be available to the prospective teacher-renter, as well as monthly rent cost.
KATV continues to report how, according to information from the school district, a teacher’s annual salary at the location can go as low as $68,000. Rent.com estimates the average monthly rent in the area to be about $3,554, meaning almost two thirds of these educators’ salaries would go towards rent each year (not including, of course, other necessities such as food and commuting costs).
According to a school spokesperson, the district has received 53 responses so far.