NewsroomThe latest CSBA news, blog posts, publications, research and resources for members and the news media

Fresh research offers lessons from education workforce housing projects as new legislation aims to increase staff housing and streamline development

Report from cityLAB-UCLA, Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley and CSBA examines nine education workforce housing projects; Assembly Bill 1381 and AB 1021 lay foundation for increased staff housing and streamlined development statewide

What you need to know: 

1. CSBA, with key partners cityLAB-UCLA and the Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley, published a new report examining nine existing projects that showcase the promise of education workforce housing and suggest lessons for California school districts and county offices of education that want to follow these early models. 

2. Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi introduced AB 1381, new legislation to help ensure local educational agencies (LEAs) have access to funding along with the right training and technical support to implement education workforce housing according to best practices. 

3. Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks and Al Muratsuchi introduced AB 1021 to streamline the process by which school districts and county offices of education can utilize school property for the development of workforce housing. 

4. CSBA will host a webinar at 11 a.m. on April 16 where the report authors will discuss major findings from Housing California Educators: Insights from nine education workforce housing developments. In the second half, CSBA staff will explain how AB 1381 and AB 1021 will streamline future efforts. Register here.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (April 7, 2025) – New research and developments in the State Legislature highlight the promise of education workforce housing as a tool for recruiting and retaining teachers and other school staff, while also identifying reforms to increase adoption of staff housing projects among California’s school districts and county offices of education.  

Housing California Educators: Insights from nine education workforce housing developments, a new report from cityLAB-UCLA, the Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley and CSBA, offers lessons from early movers in education workforce housing that can inform the next generation of staff housing. The report determined that LEAs are pursuing innovative approaches to workforce housing and producing affordable and appealing developments.

“These developments represent long-term assets for LEAs, and we were encouraged to find that many of the projects are especially well designed, tailored to the needs of their staff, and provide tenants with the high-quality units and shared amenities they deserve,” said cityLAB-UCLA Associate Director Emmanuel Proussaloglou.

“We found that each project needed early staff support, a committed district champion and a strong development team to shepherd the LEA through a 5- to 10-year development process,” said Center for Cities + Schools California Program Manager Sara Hinkley. 

The report shows that education housing can help increase the appeal of school employment and mitigate turnover among teachers and staff. The authors note that LEAs are exploring new models for housing employees, such as forming multi-agency collaborations, purchasing units in private developments and accommodating a broad range of household incomes. The study also showed the vast majority of education workforce housing units are offered at significantly below-market rates with tenants reporting housing availability influenced their decision to join or remain in their districts. 

Despite the benefits, the study found that financing moderate-income housing remains a challenge as most state and federal housing programs focus on low-income households, which excludes most teaching staff. In addition, proper planning is essential given the complexity of local, state and federal housing development policies. These challenges have created a significant barrier to moving forward with education workforce housing projects, even when the path seems clear. 

Meanwhile, a pair of CSBA-sponsored bills moving through the Legislature — AB 1021 and AB 1381 — tackle these issues head-on by making it easier for LEAs to launch successful workforce housing projects in the near future. AB 1021, joint authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D – Oakland) and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D – Torrance), would remove some of the red tape that can prevent education workforce housing projects from getting off the ground. Assembly Bill 1381, also authored by Muratsuchi, would help LEAs take education workforce housing from dream to reality by creating a mechanism to fund, train and support LEAs in the discovery and pre-development planning phases where projects can falter because of capacity challenges and the complexity of turning school property into housing. The bill proposes a revolving fund to support qualifying LEAs with project start-up costs, staffing, management, technical assistance and feasibility analysis. 

“It benefits everyone if more school districts and county offices can transform underutilized property into assets that strengthen their workforce, and by extension, the quality of instruction our students receive,” said Muratsuchi. “Yet, most school districts and county offices need support to build capacity and access training that helps them navigate the predevelopment stages that are crucial to successful implementation of education workforce housing. AB 1381 provides the structure needed to responsibly increase the number of education workforce housing projects statewide and ensure they are conducted according to best practices.”  

Although 190LEAs have expressed strong interest in workforce housing, only 11have successfully advanced from concept to shovels-in-the-ground, placing an artificial constraint on the ability of education workforce housing to address educator recruitment and retention issues. AB 1381 would address this bottleneck by creating a fund in the California State Treasurer’s Office to issue zero-interest loans to LEAs to conduct critical predevelopment efforts, which include stakeholder engagement and other due diligence activities in accordance with best practices. Applicants would be reviewed by a statewide educational nonprofit organization with a proven track record of assisting LEAs with education workforce housing projects. This organization would be selected by the State Treasurer’s Office to help identify recipients of one-time loans of up to $200,000, depending on the size of the LEA.  

These loans would be repaid three years after disbursement, free of interest, and be made available for other grantees that follow. Importantly, this small amount of money would unlock thousands of homes for educators earning in 30 percent to 120 percent of the area median income (AMI) range, help address the achievement gap through teacher retention, and establish a pioneering housing model that could continue in perpetuity. 

In addition to AB 1381, AB 1021 jointly authored by Asms. Wicks and Muratsuchi to streamline the process of adapting school property for the development of workforce housing. By easing administrative and bureaucratic hurdles, the bill will help LEAs more readily construct housing to address the educator shortage crisis and better serve California’s students. Specifically, AB 1021 would build upon landmark educator workforce legislation AB 2295 (Bloom, Chapter 652, Statutes of 2022) to ensure that small and rural school districts and county offices of education can take advantage of this opportunity, provide TK-12 schools with the same California Environmental Quality Act exemptions already granted to affordable college and university housing projects, and incentivize the development of workforce housing close to transit. At least 30 percent of the new housing would be affordable to lower-income households, and another 20 percent to moderate-income households. 

“At cityLAB-UCLA we’ve spent years supporting school districts that are in turn supporting their educators. AB 1021 is a result of all that work and makes it easier to build high-quality housing more affordably and efficiently,” said cityLAB-UCLA Director Dr. Dana Cuff. 

To learn more about how CSBA aims to help schools overcome these obstacles and deliver on the promise of education workforce housing for districts and county offices of education, register for CSBA’s April 16 webinar.