Cupertino housing project is part of a growing trend as expensive Bay Area cities want teachers to live near their schools

When the time came for Gabriela Flores to apply for a new teaching job in the Bay Area the Scotts Valley resident had her heart set on one place Cupertino The city is not only home to Apple headquarters but also boasts several of the best schools and students in the state Flores disclosed she felt drawn to the neighborhood and soon landed a job teaching seventh grade Social Studies and Language Arts at Hyde Middle School on Bollinger Road Related Articles Novato affordable housing project battles funding gap California lawmakers push new bill to tighten rent control Elias Berkeley s ADU amnesty undertaking may set example for other cities California Democrats take aim at renter late fees resource bills with affordability package Is San Jose making progress on homelessness or are specific of its wins superficial But due to the city s skyrocketing housing costs Flores opted to stay in her family s Scotts Valley home She currently commutes about minutes to an hour each way to get to campus I love working there Flores announced I would love to call this place my home In Cupertino where the median income household is more than and the average price for a house falls between million to million it can be hard for educators to secure housing within their budget A starting salary for a facilitator in Hyde s Cupertino Union School District is communicated to be around But perhaps one day Flores can live out her dream Plans are underway to create a new -unit guide housing site at Wolfe Road by The lot is located behind the site of the old Vallco Mall which is in the present being developed into a -unit housing advancement called The Rise It s the latest effort by school districts around the Bay Area to help educators afford to live where they teach In the South Bay the Mountain View Whisman School District with help from the city built a -unit facilitator housing rise The project was completed in fall and teachers moved in during February of this year In Los Gatos a four-unit below-market-rate improvement for teachers opened in Daly City last year welcomed a -unit apartment building for teachers faculty and staff from the Jefferson Union High School District The Palo Alto City Council in recent weeks greenlit a proposal to build units of housing for teachers in the Palo Alto School District Over in the East Bay the Berkeley Unified School District is developing ground on a new project to create units of affordable housing for district staff Santa Clara County is overseeing the Cupertino project which was proposed by Supervisors Joe Simitian and Otto Lee in Last year the county hired Hayward-based Eden Housing to be the project developer and Architects Engage Fora to design the site The entities in recent days completed a yearlong effort to collect residents input on the site s design and what amenities will be included The results will be submitted alongside a formal planning application to the city according to the project s website It s expected to take a year to get city staff s approval and subsequent building permits But more specific details including how much the project will cost how it will be funded and when construction will begin are still being worked out The completed project will house around to educators and promotion staff providing them with the opportunity to live where they work If Flores gets the chance to move in Hyde will only be a seven-minute commute I would never move if I don t get help from professor housing Flores revealed I would never be able to afford living in Cupertino Carley Stavis a facilitator at Cupertino High School and president of the Fremont Union High School District s teachers union declared a multitude of educators especially newer ones opt to live outside of Santa Clara County because of expensive housing Chosen of her colleagues commute from as far away as Santa Cruz Oakland or Hollister It s expensive to live around the school districts Stavis stated There are teachers with families who have lived there for generations or bought a home decades before Cupertino had a spike in real estate prices But for new teachers that s really hard The expenses are so high Cupertino Union is a feeder school for Fremont Union which serves thousands of high school students across Cupertino Sunnyvale San Jose and Saratoga Conversations about adding coach housing near Cupertino have been held on and off for almost a decade In the Cupertino Union School District intended to build affordable housing units for teachers and staff at a closed-down elementary school in Santa Clara The project was cancelled that same year and faced fierce opposition from various district members who questioned the need to add educator housing in the area and accused the district of making decisions on the matter behind closed doors Stavis noted it s key for teachers to be current members of the communities where they work and take part in city or neighborhood decisions that impact their schools and students Having the ability to say we are a part of the same group and a part of the same society decisions goes a long way she commented