Cities look at subsidized housing to stem teacher shortages [View all]
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEACHERS_HOUSING_SHORTAGE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-03-02-10-38
Jan 3, 2:10 AM EST
Cities look at subsidized housing to stem teacher shortages
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- As the days get shorter, first grade teacher Esmeralda Jiménez watches the dimming afternoon sky outside her classroom window the way her pupils watch the clock at dismissal time.
The studio apartment Jiménez rents for $1,783 a month, or 43 percent of her salary, is located in one of San Francisco's sketchiest neighborhoods. Getting home involves running a gantlet of feces-strewn sidewalks, popping crack pipes, discarded needles and menacing comments - daily irritants that become more daunting after dark.
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It's a scenario that has Jiménez wondering if she should find a profession that pays more, and public officials here and in other cities looking at housing as a tool to prevent the exodus of young educators like her.
Inspired by the success in the heart of the Silicon Valley of a 70-unit teachers-only apartment complex, school districts in high cost-of-living areas and rural communities that have long struggled to staff classrooms are considering buying or building rent-subsidized apartments as a way to attract and retain teachers amid concerns of a looming shortage.
Housing costs especially have become a point of friction for teachers in expensive cities such as Seattle, where teachers who went on a one-week strike in September said they could not afford to live in the same city as the children they teach.
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