State Programs to Help Teachers with Housing

From the Colorado Sun.

District administrators also report that housing for teachers and school staff is often the factor that makes or breaks a highly qualified candidate’s ability to accept a job offer and stay in their role long term.

Solutions to Colorado’s lack of affordable housing for teachers and other key staff are slowly taking shape, with one new state program designed to offer an estimated 200 low-interest mortgages to rural educators and district staff. Another potential program, part of legislation that Democratic state Sen. Jeff Bridges plans to introduce this week, would allocate funds to districts to build more rental units for their employees. 

The pair of programs won’t entirely solve the deficit of affordable housing, advocates of the programs say, particularly as some parts of Colorado struggle with low housing stock. But they might crack open some new ideas that, if successful, the state could scale up so that teachers don’t have to hunt so hard for a place to live.

State would send money to school districts to build rental housing

Under Jeff Bridges’ proposal, the state would create a $1.2 billion program called the Building Excellent Teacher and Employee Residences program, or BETER

Districts could use their share of BETER dollars to build rental units on their own land, a huge cost savings for any affordable housing project.

A real path to homeownership in rural Colorado

A separate pilot program, folded into a law passed last year, will invest $50 million from the state public school fund into low-interest mortgages for rural teachers and district employees, helping lower their monthly payments and giving them a real shot at homeownership.

Teachers Need Affordable Housing

READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE COLORADO SUN HERE