Is that really good news?

Last month, the Berkeley Unified School District in California broke ground on 110 apartments intended for teachers and staff. The project has garnered praise nationwide, but it’s actually a sign of a very serious problem. As admirable as it is to house teachers, the celebration of this project ignores a key question: why is it necessary for a school district to build its own employee housing?

Like that “heartwarming” story about a child running a lemonade stand to cover classmates’ school lunch debt, it’s less pleasant the more you think about it. Why does the responsibility for feeding children fall to another child? How has Berkeley become so exclusive that it now needs special housing for its own staff? Why do you need to be both a school employee and the winner of a lottery to find a reasonably priced apartment in Berkeley? Isn’t it a bad thing if your boss is also your landlord?

If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, you already know that a lack of housing options at all levels has brought us here. Remember, most people live in market-rate housing, and it’s the shortage of market-rate housing that makes it appealing or even necessary for employers to provide housing. Living in employee housing is better than not having somewhere to live, but it increases the power of your boss, makes it harder to switch jobs, harder to move when you want to, harder to live the life you want to live.

That’s not to say that cities don’t have a role in providing housing — they absolutely do. We’d love to see expanded public housing, including the sort of mixed-income social housing Rep. Mike Connolly has advanced.

But city-run teacher housing is a not a triumph. It’s a warning sign that the housing shortage is diverting time and money away from education and toward staving off homelessness among staff.

Upcoming Events

July 15 and August 5: Human Rights Commission Focus Groups — The Somerville Human Rights Commission wants to hear about experiences and concerns around discrimination, inequity, access to government, and other human rights issues affecting our community. 

July 18: Launching the Massachusetts Zoning Atlas — WGBH and Suffolk University present the launch of the Massachusetts Zoning Atlas, the first resource to comprehensively visualize zoning conditions across the 352 zoning jurisdictions in the Commonwealth.

July 21: Mayoral Candidate Forum — Union Square Neighborhood Council presents a policy discussion among mayoral candidates. 6:30 to 8:30 pm in person at 8 Tyler Street and on Zoom.

As always, you can find our Google calendar at somervilleyimby.org/calendar. If you notice we’ve missed an event, feel free to reply to this message and let us know!

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