PUSD land for affordable housing: Talking Points

Send emails to: publiccomment@pusd.us,  bailey.michelle@pusd.us, kenne.kimberly@pusd.us, halllee.jennifer@pusd.us, cahalan.patrick@pusd.us, marshallmckenzie.pat@pusd.us, fredericks.tina@pusd.us, velazquezvargas.yarm@pusd.us, bcc: bert@makinghousinghappen.org.

Simple Template

Subject: Public Comment: Please use PUSD land for affordable housing

Dear PUSD School Board,

(Optional: start with a personal story about your own housing situation or that of someone you know or what motivates you to write the email.)

Thank you for moving forward with affordable staff housing at the Roosevelt site. This initiative will make the school district stronger and more resilient.

We need affordable staff housing because school district employees increasingly cannot afford to live here, so they are moving further away, enduring long commutes or leaving the district altogether.

Please also move forward with affordable housing for student families at a second site.

We are experiencing an affordable housing crisis that is displacing from our school district many working-class families who send their children to PUSD schools, resulting in enrollment declines and disinvestment from our schools.

The result of the enrollment decline is that the district has closed 11 campuses since 2005. Several of these campuses have very little occurring at their sites and are a financial liability for the district to maintain. We need to use this excess land for affordable housing for school district employees and families of children who attend PUSD schools.

Since the district owns the land on which the housing would be built, the district can both provide affordable housing and realize a positive net cash flow from it at the same time (for example, the feasibility study presented on June 8, 2023 contains two financial scenarios, one in which the district would net $118 million and another in which the district would net $16 million.)

Using excess PUSD land would both provide housing for staff and PUSD families and create an income stream of unrestricted revenue. This solution is a win-win for everyone.

Thank you,

Your name and address (or just zip code)

Talking Points for Affordable Housing on School Land

Eleven School campuses have closed. While most of the eleven campuses are being rented to outside entities, such as charter schools, three of the campuses are not being rented out, are being underutilized, and are a financial liability to the district.

Staff and student housing will make the school district stronger and more resilient. We don’t have to keep closing schools if we can help families stay in Pasadena, including families of staff who send their children to PUSD schools. Both teachers and other PUSD staff tend to send their children to PUSD schools, but ONLY IF they are able to live in the district. Sadly many cannot afford to live here, so they commute from further away and send their children to other schools. Affordable housing for staff could change that. And affordable housing for PUSD student families can help reduce the loss of families moving out of the district due to high housing costs.

Additionally, because PUSD owns the land, it can both provide affordable housing and realize a profit from it. This additional income can be used to help fix the remaining school sites which have severe needs for repairs and upgrades.

Staff Housing will help lowest paid employees. Many PUSD employees can’t afford to live in Pasadena. While this is true of many teachers, especially beginning teachers, it is even more true of lower-paid employees who sometimes make little above minimum wage. Many of these employees are vulnerable to displacement due to the rapidly rising housing costs in this area, and it is reported that two janitors are currently living in their cars. Some that have been displaced are commuting long distances to get to Pasadena for their low paying jobs. Their commute cuts into their already low pay and also effectively causes them to work longer hours for which they are unpaid just to get to work. For this reason, building housing that is affordable to these employees on land the school district owns but is not using is a good idea. And this is why the Teamsters and CSEA unions support the proposal to use unused school land for staff housing.

Long Commutes are Unsustainable. When employees of PUSD cannot afford to live in the area and move to communities further away, they then have to commute long distances to get here. That means that they are putting in longer hours for no extra pay. It creates a stress on them and their families, so they are more likely to transfer to other districts when the opportunity arises, creating high turnover which is not good for our students or the other workers in the district. Additionally, these long commutes add to air pollution which is bad for all of us, especially for our students who are still growing and can develop asthma and other respiratory problems due to smog. In addition to particulates which cause smog, cars also emit the colorless and odorless gas CO2 which is a global warming gas which leads to extreme temperatures and weather which is bad for all of us, but especially for our current students who will have to contend with the worst of climate change when they get older. For these reasons, using unused PUSD land for staff housing makes a lot of sense.

Survey Shows PUSD Employees Want to Use Land for Housing The survey of school staff shows that the overwhelming majority want to live closer to where they work and favor the idea of using unused PUSD land for staff housing which they may get to live in. While this survey was taken over two years ago, a new survey is unlikely to yield different results since housing prices have only risen during the intervening time causing further displacement of lower income households. Not only beginning teachers, but many other lower paid employees, such as janitors, teacher aids, and cafeteria workers, earn far below the median income of Pasadena. Some workers make little more than minimum wage, so they are vulnerable to displacement, and many have already been displaced. The union reps for these employees have very recently said that they support using PUSD land for staff housing. The staff clearly want the land used for staff housing so this avenue should be pursued.

Net Financial Gain Affordable housing will be a net financial Gain for the district. Unused PUSD land is not only a waste of an unused resource but also costs the district money to maintain. Unused PUSD land is a drain on the school district’s finances. If the land is used for staff housing, it will not only provide a very valuable resource for staff who otherwise cannot afford to live in the area, it can also bring in income for the district. Both feasibility studies that were presented in June showed that the district can build affordable housing and that it would result in a net financial gain for the district. There were two financial scenarios, one showed a net gain of $118 million and the other a net gain of $16 million.

For those unfamiliar with affordable housing financing, having a net gain is normal in situations like this one where the land does not have to be purchased. Making Housing and Community Happen has a team of experts that works with religious congregations who want to have affordable housing on their land, and the congregations typically realize a net financial gain. Using unused PUSD land for affordable staff housing will not only make use of an unused resource by using it to provide much needed housing, it will also reverse a net financial loss of maintaining unused sites into a net financial gain.