Workforce Housing Initiative

At San José Unified, our greatest asset is our employees. To recruit and retain the
exceptional teachers and staff who prepare our students to be the thinkers, leaders, and
creators of tomorrow, we are actively working to build affordable workforce housing.
By providing high-quality housing options right here in our community, we can better
support our employees and build an even stronger, more collaborative environment for
our schools.

The need for workforce housing is driven directly by the voices and experiences of our
dedicated staff. While San José Unified employees receive salaries and benefits
competitive with many other area districts, public education in California is inadequately
and inequitably funded. Several neighboring districts have considerably more money to
devote to employee compensation than San José Unified has and the high cost of living
in the Bay Area is an impediment to continuing to attract and retain the high-quality
teachers and staff who make San José Unified schools great. San José Unified
conducted a survey of employees in January 2025 and, of the over 1,200 respondents,
43% had considered leaving their job in five years due to housing costs.

Stable and affordable housing is essential to the well-being and success of San José
Unified’s students, families, and employees. As the largest local educational agency in
the City of San Jose and the County of Santa Clara, San José Unified is uniquely
positioned to positively address our area’s affordable housing crisis.

Bringing workforce housing to reality requires careful planning, community input, and thorough analysis. San José Unified has taken several major steps forward to ensure this initiative is successful, transparent, and aligned with our district’s long-term goals:

1.    October 19, 2017 – Recognizing the Crisis: The Board of Education reviewed a recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Current Enrollment, Enrollment Projections, and Utilization of District Facilities and officially adopted Resolution 2018-10-19-01 on the Affordable Housing Crisis, formalizing San José Unified’s commitment to finding local housing solutions for our workforce.

2.    August 23, 2018 – Evaluating Our Resources: The Board of Education held discussions (agenda item J.1.) regarding student enrollment and district-owned properties to see how our physical spaces could best serve our community's needs.

3.    September 13, 2018 – Identifying Options: Building on those property discussions, the Board officially committed to Step 1 of a comprehensive Master Plan for San José Unified Properties that identified nine properties that have potential to support workforce housing projects. 

4.    September 23, 2019 – In-Depth Analysis: Following employee feedback, community engagement, and consultation with land use professionals, the Board of Education authorized a detailed pre-development analysis of four potential district properties. This step allowed us to study the feasibility of transforming these locations into workforce housing.

5.    July 25, 2024 – Funding for Housing: Following conversations with employees, families, and community members and formal polling, the Board of Education adopted Resolution 2025-07-25-01, officially placing a general obligation bond measure that included workforce housing as a main priority on the November 5, 2024 ballot. Thanks to the incredible support of our community, voters passed Measure R, securing dedicated funding for workforce housing.

6.    November 21, 2024 – Community Collaboration: To ensure our staff and community had a direct voice in shaping this initiative, the Board established the Advisory Committee on Workforce Housing. This diverse group—representing parents, community members, and labor partners—was charged with using the pre-development data to recommend a prioritization of the four potential housing sites.

7.    February 13, 2025 – Prioritization and Next Steps: The Advisory Committee on Workforce Housing submitted a recommendation to the Board of Education on the prioritization of the four potential housing sites. The committee identified the Hillsdale site at 760 Hillsdale Avenue and 705-745 Capital Expressway as the top priority. The Board of Education authorized Step 4 of the Master Plan for San José Unified Properties.

8.    September 11, 2025 – Updated Design: The Board of Education received an update on the design of a potential housing project at the Hillsdale site based on the employee survey and potential entitlement process.

San José Unified will be submitting the necessary applications and information to the City of San José to move forward with the approval for construction at the Hillsdale site. The estimated timeline for construction to start is twenty-six to forty-one months.

We want to extend our deepest gratitude to our community for their support of Measure R and the workforce housing initiative. We are excited to take these next steps together to build a supportive home for the educators and staff who serve our students every day.

Planning for the future is a community-wide endeavor. If you have questions about workforce housing, or input that you would like to share, please email us at housing@sjusd.org.