Teacher Provided Housing
Provide teachers with on-campus housing as part of their employment contract.
I like the organization, Greater Greater Washington. I read the articles on the Greater Greater Washington (GGW) website on a regular basis. I’ve been reading their blog ever since they were founded in 2008. I also attend their monthly happy hours, and other events. On 9/24/25, I attended GGW’s Fall Mixer at the Metrobar. It’s a short walk on the pedestrian causeway over the railroad tracks, from the Rhode Island Metro station.
I’m a city-loving urbanist. I’m also conservative. I disagree with about 99.9% of GGW’s politics. So what? We have the same vision: making Washington, DC a great place to live. We just have different ways of getting there. Full disclosure: I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. So far, I’m being tolerated. Oh, Donald Trump wants to make DC safe and beautiful. too. Read the Executive Order from March 28, 2025.
GGW reprinted on September 8, 2025, an excellent article by Joseph Iwaskiw, that was originally published on their website in June 2024, about building housing units for teachers on public school properties. It’s an excellent article. Read the whole thing.
Teacher provided housing is a great idea. Let’s face it. You don’t go into education to get rich. However, you should be able to make enough money to live a nice, middle class lifestyle, so that you decide to stay in teaching for your entire career. Too many good teachers leave the profession, because they can no longer afford to remain teachers. Washington, DC is a high cost area. Plus, when you are thirty-five years old, you don’t want to be sharing a two bedroom apartment, with three other people.
My father was a junior high school social studies teacher. Until my parents bought their one and only house, we lived in housing on the grounds of the high school/junior high school that was provided for free, as part of my dad’s salary/compensation package. Yes, this was public, not private school. You can live quite well on a teacher’s salary, when you don’t have to pay housing costs. It also allowed my parents to save up on one income—my mother was a stay-at-home mom, the 20% down payment the banks required, when you took out a mortgage to buy a house. My father’s commute? A two minute walk across the parking lot. He came home for lunch too.
The housing units were former officer housing, that were built at a closing Rhode Island naval base, during World War Two. After the war, the base was no longer needed, so it was deactivated. They were purchased by the town, disassembled, moved to the high school grounds, and reassembled. There were 32 single story, connected housing units. There were two buildings in the shape of an L, sixteen units each, that were eight units per side, back to back.
The housing was quite primitive, by today’s standards. They were two bedroom, one bath units. The central heat, was a large kerosene heater in the kitchen, that had a duct into the living room. You ran fans in the winter, to move the warm air into the bedrooms, which were one on either end. The bathroom had a metal shower stall, a sink, and a commode. The units one door to the outside, opened into the living room. There was an open hallway with an area that was the formal dining area. We didn’t use it that much, from what I can remember.
The kitchen was were everything took place. Besides the kerosene heater, there was a hot water heater next to the kitchen sink. The four burner stove, had three working burners, and an oven. The refrigerator was the old pull handle type, and had to be defrosted once a week. The freezer was inside the refrigerator. In the corner, sat the wringer washer. It was rolled over to the sink and, connected to the two faucets on wash day. The clothesline was outside. So were all the other units clotheslines. There was no AC. By today’s standards, it was quite Spartan. However, it was free.
Here is a quote from the GGW article:
“The concept of teacher housing is not new, with the Teachers Village in Newark, New Jersey, being the most prominent example.”
According to AI, Teachers Village was built between 2013 and 2018. He’s right. It’s not new. I know from personal experience. We lived in a teacher housing “village,” from the time I was born in 1954, until my parents bought their house in 1960. We would have had to move eventually anyway. They closed and tore down the housing units in 1969, to make room for new tennis courts.
Recently, most of the high school was torn down, and a new school building was built, taking up what used to be the student parking lot. The tennis courts were removed and replaced with a parking lot for the students. Let’s see…housing was torn down to make room for tennis courts, which were torn down to make room for a parking lot. Ok, my head is spinning. Got to have a place for the students with a sense of entitlement, to park their cars. That way they don’t have to ride that big yellow school bus, like we did.
Another quote:
“Because DC owns the land, the housing developments could be cost-neutral, as land costs would be zero, and teachers’ monthly rent could be used to pay back initial loans.”
That’s one way to do it. Here’s mine: Rather than charging teachers a monthly rent, if DC got rid of its grift, graft, waste, fraud and abuse problems, there would be more than enough money to pay off the construction loans, and still have enough left over. In addition, they need to cut the cost of building the teacher villages, by having the DC Government streamline the permitting processes. Regulations cost money, and stupid regulations, like mandating that the developer hire a certain percentage of three-legged dwarfs with blue hair, who can fart on cue, and have buck teeth, cost a lot of money. Yes, I know that is ironic hyperbole, but you get my drift. Make it worth the developer’s wile, to build nice-middle of the road, affordable middle class housing units on various school properties. Some of us grew up just fine, without granite counter tops. No, I don’t advocate going back to a three burner stove, and a kerosene heater.
Rather than paying rent, require that teachers set aside a certain percentage of their income in pre-tax dollars, set up by payroll deduction, into an interest-bearing account tied to various long-term growth funds, so that when they retire, they have a nice nest egg for a huge down payment on a house, or depending on where they decide to move, have enough money in the account, to pay cash for a house outright.
We would also need to change the tax laws. Provided housing is considered a fringe benefit, and fringe benefits are considered income for tax purposes by the IRS. There are ways around it, but they are far and few between. One of them, is you have to accept the provided housing as part of your employment contract. It can not be an option. Also, that money set aside in the down payment account, should be tax-free upon withdrawal, if it’s used for its intended use: purchasing a home upon retirement.
More quotes:
“One could imagine a DCPS housing program targeted toward incoming teachers in their first few years, a time of particular financial vulnerability for young professionals.”
“While such housing is not suitable for all teachers, the plan could aim to accommodate 10% to 15% of DCPS educators, with potential partnerships with private and charter schools to fill any vacancies.”
I would grandfather current teachers that live in Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, or even currently living in DC in either rentals or owned housing, to continue to live where they are, until they retire. I would even give the District’s public school teachers, if they lived in the District, housing allowances. If. They. Live. In. The. District. Sorry suburbs. Eventually, all DC public school teachers, would be required to live in DC teacher housing in DC. No more commuting from Gaithersburg.
I would also make it mandatory for all DC public school teachers, staff, and administrators, to send to their own children to DC’s public schools. The District would have the best public school system in the country if their employees, including the superintendent and chancellor, were required to use the system they work in and manage.
The article states that the residents would be from different schools, so that you wouldn’t just be living with your co-workers. I have mixed thoughts about that. When my family lived in teacher housing, all the other residents were teachers at the same school, the high school/junior high school, except for one lady, who was the head cook at one of the town’s elementary schools, Union School, which was two miles down the road in the center of town. She lived there with her daughter. Her husband had been killed in action during WWII. Her spaghetti sauce was legendary. On spaghetti day, few students and teachers brown bagged it. Back then school lunch cost 35 cents.
I can see advantages to both having teachers/staff members from different schools, and having just teachers at a particular school. I can see the advantage of being able to share ideas, with faculty members from other schools, about presenting curricula and classroom management. It’s called candid, informal professional development. The one school approach, is like the teacher housing at exclusive private boarding schools. The downside to the one school approach: Get drunk one Saturday night, and the entire school knows about it Monday morning.
What about administrators and other staff? You could have the administrators in separate areas of the “village,” living with administrators from other schools, or you could have completely separate “administrator villages.” I’m sure the DC teachers would love to have the administrators in a separate “village,” somewhere else—like in Nebraska. They can telecommute. Ok, Nebraska Avenue NW, is close enough for government work. As far as custodians and other staff, they are fine living with the teachers. They know how to keep a secret from the administrators.
Again using AI, it stated that the starting salary for most DC public school teachers, with a bachelor’s degree, is currently around $56,000 and change per year. Some will make a little more based on experience. The average cost of a 1 BR apartment in DC, is around $2,400 a month. That’s $28,800 per year, or about 50% of your income. The current guidelines state that your housing costs shouldn’t exceed 30% of your income. 30% of $56,000 comes out to around $1,400 a month. 50% isn’t 30%. It’s not rocket science. Not so long ago, the housing cost percentage was 20%. The average rent for a two bedroom apartment, is around $3K a month. $3,000 X 12 months, is $36,000 per year. Cut that in half with a roommate, and it’s still barely affordable. $1,800 a month is $400 more than the $1400 a month guidelines. Plus, you’ve got a roommate, or roommates. It’s probably roommates, because that $56,000 salary, is before taxes and other deductions.
I’m concentrating on Washington, DC, because I live in the DC area. I spend a lot of time actually in the city. How other municipalities and counties pay their teachers, is their business.
DC is unique, because it is a federal district, not a state or a territory. At one time, DC’s public school teachers were federal employees, not city employees. They should become federal employees again, starting at GS-7, step 1 ($57K per year) with a bachelor’s degree; GS-8, step 1 ($68K per year), with a master’s degree. If you don’t have to pay for housing, those salaries will go a long way—even after taxes.
We have military bases all over the world. Except for some remote assignments or war zones, most allow members to bring their dependents. Their children need to go to school.
The Department Of Defense Education Activity, DoDEA , provides those schools. Here’s a quote from their website:
“Shortly after the end of World War II, the United States military established schools for the children of its service men and women stationed in Europe and the Pacific. Schools for children of military members stationed at various bases in the United States were already well-established. First administered by the military branches they served, the growing number of schools was soon transferred to civilian managers, then organized into two separate but parallel systems: the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (Pacific and Europe) overseas, and the Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (Americas) in the United States. In 1994 the two systems were brought together under an umbrella agency, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).”
Here are two other quotes: The agency operates…
“…161 accredited schools in 9 districts located in 11 foreign countries, 7 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
“DoDEA employs more than 14,000 employees who serve more than 67,000 children of active duty military and DoD civilian families. DoDEA is committed to ensuring that all school-aged children of military families are provided a world-class education that prepares them for postsecondary education and/or career success and to be leading contributors in their communities as well as in our 21st century globalized society.”
Ah yes, the typical educratic gobbledygook, but you get the point. The federal government actually does operate some schools overseas, as well as here in the US. It isn’t clear if DoDEA teachers, administrators, and staff, are provided housing on base, but according to AI, overseas teachers are given a Living Quarters Allowance (LQA), in order to secure adequate, off base housing. I have a feeling that if there is housing on base available, it’s available for the civilian teachers and staff, on a space-A basis. If an active duty family needs the housing, the civilian family gets the boot. That’s why there is the LQA.
That brings me to the next point: Housing allowances. If you build teacher villages, you fill them up with teachers and staff, and there is none available for new teachers, you will have to give them a housing allowance. You make it under the condition, that once housing on campus becomes available, you have to move. Make sure the lease is month to month tenancy, or has an educator clause, similar to a military clause, so you can get out of the lease. The housing allowance would only be available to teachers who live in DC, not the suburbs. Sorry again suburbs.
Now the nonprofits should do the same, and then other agencies and department, along with Corporate America. My opinions on those topics is for another day. I’ll close by saying that I support provided teacher housing, not just in the public schools, but also in the parochial and private schools. It’s the best way to attract top talent. Free housing, utilities included, on a campus with easy access to public transportation? Sounds like an urbanist’s dream, and I’m a conservative.