Affordable housing for local teachers is now in the works in San Luis Obispo off of Highway 1 near Cuesta College.
“I know a lot of teachers who can’t afford to teach where they live,” said special education teacher Michelle Dornish.
Dornish lives in San Luis Obispo but drives to Guadalupe for work.
“It’s worth it to commute because they do pay more in Santa Barbara County,” Dornish said,
She says living in San Luis Obispo wouldn’t be possible for her with just one income.
“If I didn’t meet my husband and live with him, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to live in SLO at all,” Dornish said.
To improve the ability for school districts in the county to recruit and retain 9,000 employees, an affordable housing project is being proposed on San Luis Obispo County Office of Education property near the main office off Highway 1.
“I think that would be great, especially for younger teachers who are just starting out,” Dornish said.
County supervisors last week unanimously approved a land use ordinance allowing for district housing on land designated for “public facilities.”
But not everyone was on board.
“This idea that the school districts are going to go into the housing business is a really bad idea,” said Gary Kirkland of Atascadero.
“They are in the education business and to educate they have to have educators and what is challenging in this county is finding housing for educators,” said Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg.
Currently, one modular housing unit sits on the 1.4-acre site. Six more of the repurposed, which are former classrooms being repurosed for staff housing, are planned.
Hugo Bastidos with the Office of Education says many opportunities come from this project, including retention and recruitment for educators who serve the more than 30,000 students in the county.
“We can use this as a tool to attract great teachers and staff members at SLOCOE and throughout our county,” said Bastidos.
He says he views this project as a pilot program.
“This will serve as a pilot program for all our districts that have surplus property throughout the county,” said Bastidos.
Bastidos says once they submit a land use permit, they’ll take the project to county planning and building.
Once the project is approved, the Office of Education will look to bid it this summer and possibly break ground this fall.
