Affordable teacher housing development in Los Gatos ‘move-in ready’

A handful of teachers in Los Gatos now have a new, affordable place to call home.

The first of its kind, below-market-rate housing development for Los Gatos teachers and school staff completed construction this month and could see tenants moving in before the end of the year.

Developer Sarah Chaffin, with SupportTeacherHousing.org, said the development will help to address the group called the “missing middle,” who make too much to qualify for traditional affordable housing but not enough to live in the cities they work.

She hopes the project will serve as a model for other cities to build similar housing for not just teachers but nurses, police dispatchers, social workers and other professionals who have been priced out of cities across Silicon Valley.

The property, located at 20 Dittos Lane, just off West Main Street in downtown Los Gatos, is waiting on the final green light from the town, which is expected to come in the next few days, before Chaffin will open applications.

So far more than 80 people have filled out interest forms for the four available units.

Two units are two bedrooms, one bath, and two units are one bedroom, one bath, with rent from $1,600 to $2,300. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Los Gatos is $3,600, and a one-bedroom apartment is $2,566, according to Zumper.

“One of the problems with the teachers is, they can’t afford to live where they work, and some of them are commuting two and three hours a day,” Chaffin said. “That commute time they can spend after school with the kids, helping with homework, extracurricular activities and just being engaged in the community.”

The teachers or school staff who move into these units will also be enrolled in financial empowerment classes to help them save up for a down payment on a house.

“So we get them prepared for home ownership, and then they move out and a new group moves in,” Chaffin said. “It’s helping all income levels because school employees can participate, too.”

While the units are below market rate, Chaffin said she and designer Jeff Chapman worked to make the space feel luxurious and comfortable.

All four units have 9-foot-high ceilings, lots of windows to let in natural light and a parking spot. They also have updated stainless steel appliances and granite countertops that were sourced from the leftovers of a local luxury build.

The development is made up of two large white, single-story buildings, each with a 900-square-foot two bedroom unit and an 840-square-foot one-bedroom attached accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. One of the units is ADA compliant.

Community partners stepped in with discounted or donated features for the apartment to keep construction costs — and rents — as low as possible. Los Gatos Roofing constructed the roofs for free, and Adnac Fire Protection donated a $13,000 fire sprinkler system to the build.

Community involvement plays a big role in getting these projects off the ground, Chaffin said, whether it’s installing the roof or planting some flowers.

Over the years, SupportTeacherHousing.org hosted teacher town hall meetings with Supervisor Joe Simitian, where parents, local politicians and school board members got together to listen to teachers and school staff explain their struggle to find affordable housing.

Teachers shared the realities of their living situations, from renting out illegally converted garages and couch surfing to living out of their cars. One teacher said he was living in an RV parked in a county park, and several teachers said they commuted hours to school every day.

“This missing middle group, a lot of them are working a 40-hour-a-week job, but they are essentially homeless,” Chaffin said. “They’re housing insecure. Some of them truly are homeless — they’re living in their car — but couch surfing is a form of homelessness.”

Los Gatos has struggled with recruiting and retaining teachers for years. Chaffin said she wanted to focus the housing development on teachers after watching her daughter cycle through teachers who were priced out of Los Gatos.

Other Bay Area cities are struggling to keep their teachers as rents rise. Milpitas Unified School District asked parents to take in teachers who cannot afford to live in the area after the district lost at least seven teachers.

A 110-unit apartment complex in Palo Alto is in the works to create affordable housing for teachers, and another 144 units are proposed in Mountain View. Jefferson Union High School District opened a 122-unit teacher-only development in Daly City earlier this year.

Chaffin said this project will serve as a model for what other communities can build for their teachers. Towns can save time and money by using the project design to get below-market-rate housing built faster.

“A lot of the smaller cities have sites like this where they’re not really using it,” Chaffin said. “Why not use that land for teacher and school employee housing?”

SupportTeacherHousing.org is a pilot program to build more affordable housing for teachers, but Chaffin hopes it shows how units can be built for the “missing middle” in general.

“All the people that are so critical, that make our economy run, those are our community helpers,” she said. “They can no longer afford to live here, and there really is no help for them because they don’t qualify for the traditional affordable programs. So they’re trapped in that middle.”