The California Department of Education is eyeing 75,000 acres of land owned by local school districts across the state that it says could be used for affordable housing for teachers — including several thousand acres in Orange County.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said 2.3 million affordable homes could be built on what the department has labeled “surplus” land owned by school districts. In a plan announced last week, Thurmond said he wants districts to develop that land to provide housing for teachers to live near their workplaces.
While there are resources already available to school districts — including money earmarked for housing tax credits in the state budget and a 2022 law that allowed for the rezoning of school land for housing — Thurmond’s still-early plan is to create a blueprint that school districts can use to develop housing.
Of the 75,000 acres the department identified as potentially developable into teacher housing, 2,700 acres are owned by Orange County school districts. In fact, all 28 K-12 Orange County districts have surplus land that could be used for housing, according to a map created by researchers from UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools and used by Thurmond in his plan.
Capistrano Unified School District, the county’s largest school district that serves over 55,000 students, owns 834.1 acres of properties. Of that acreage, about 45%, 372.7 acres, has been identified as surplus, underdeveloped land, according to the center.
Another large school district with surplus land is Garden Grove Unified. It, according to the center, has about 275 acres of land that could potentially be developed for affordable housing.
But just because land has been identified as “potentially developable,” doesn’t mean those parcels are vacant lots.
In Santa Ana Unified District, for example, surplus properties that were once schools are being used for training centers, district satellite offices or other similar purposes, said spokesperson Fermin Leal.
“We have not yet fully reviewed the state superintendent’s initiative, but we will review to determine how to best use any future school property that becomes available to see if affordable housing can be a viable option for our district and community,” Leal said.
At Lowell Joint School District, the land identified serves as the maintenance and operations yard, district office and the site of a future early learning center.
“All of our properties and campuses are currently and will continue to be used for educating our students,” said Superintendent Jim Coombs.
While there’s no guarantee that the proposed 2.3 million units will be built — school districts would have to be willing to develop the land they own — offering affordable housing to staff would help recruit and retain them, Thurmond said.
Close to 60 school districts across the state — none in Orange County — are either publicly exploring building affordable homes for staff, have made a financial commitment, are in the building phase or already provide housing to school staff, the California School Boards Association said in a presentation in July.
Los Angeles Unified is one such district that already provides housing to school staff, and the district is looking to develop eight more sites for affordable housing.
California has struggled with a shortage of teachers and rising home costs. The state has a 2.5 million housing shortage while home prices have been on a steady rise for more than a decade.
And that’s taking a toll on California’s public school workforce, according to the California School Boards Association. In tandem with the housing crisis, school districts on average lose 12% of their staff annually.
In Orange County, which has one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, average home values were up more than 10% in the past year. Teachers in Orange County have decried the high cost of living and requested salary raises.
Thurmond and the Department of Education will kick off the initiative at a housing summit on Wednesday, Aug. 14 with school district leaders, labor unions and housing development and construction professionals, where they will identify opportunities to increase housing development and provide more information to school districts seeking to develop their surplus land.
“California’s housing crisis is undeniable, but it is not unsolvable,” Thurmond, who is running for governor in 2026, said. “We know that families across our state are impacted, from the homelessness crisis facing our urban areas, to the long commute times impacting families priced out of once-affordable neighborhoods, to the staffing crisis in schools whose educators can’t afford to live where they work. I believe that California has enough resources and ingenuity to solve this, and the data shows that California’s schools have the land to make this happen.”
Those interested in attending the housing summit can RSVP by visiting bit.ly/HousingSummitAug24, and policy recommendations can be shared by emailing Initiatives@cde.ca.gov.
Related Articles
Tony Thurmond seeks to build millions of affordable housing units for teachers
New Habitat for Humanity homeownership opportunities coming to Santa Ana
Anaheim will buy Lincoln Avenue motel for $3.9 million
Court gives Huntington Beach one year to update housing plans
Newport Beach council decides not to put city’s housing element out to voters
Leave a Reply