Solutions for Rural Teacher Housing Question
In an earlier post , we asked a question about how rural schools have addressed housing needs as a way to recruit and retain teachers. Here’s the original question:
Our school has teacher retention problems due to many things, including lack of housing near the school. We are thinking about buying a house that we could rent out to new teachers and are wondering if this has been tried before and if it was successful.
We’ve received several examples of specific ideas that rural schools are using as well as additional ideas for addressing this vexing problem.
We thought these ideas deserved their own post, so we’ve listed them below (some are also in the comment section of the original post).
If you would like to contact the person who sent the idea, please email Rural Matters editor and we will help put you in contact with the person who submitted the idea.
Thanks to everyone who shared their knowledge. Please feel free to add to the discussion by adding a comment below.
SOLUTIONS TO RURAL TEACHER HOUSING DILEMMAS
NEW! September 4, 2007 FROM CALIFORNIA: There are schools that provide teacherages here in northern California. Kashia, a school of 14 students, has a teacherage. I believe the teacher pays a small amount of rent for it each month. There are other examples of this in isolated rural areas. In Zenia, CA there were two houses on the school property; one for the teacher and the other for the bus driver/maintenance person.
FROM MONTANA: In rural Eastern Montana small schools often have a “teacherage”, a small house near the school, or even on school property, that they offer as free housing in order to keep teachers. These rural schools are sometimes 50 miles from the nearest small town, so providing free housing is essential.
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FROM NEW MEXICO: In New Mexico, a rural school (Tatum Municipal Schools) established building construction classes for high school students, bought materials and had them build housing (for teachers, I think) owned by the district. They report good success with this.... Another New Mexico school who has been doing this for some time is Santa Fe High School...although not necessarily a rural school.
FROM NEW YORK: There is some information available on employer-assisted housing that I will locate and send along. It is definitely a useful and emergingly innovative strategy that we will be using in Hoke. The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) will be an invaluable resource in New York. There may be similar resources in other states as well. Hope to get back with you soon.
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FROM NEW ZEALAND: Hi, In New Zealand, the government has provided rural schools with houses which they can rent cheaply to teachers. This made a lot of sense.
Most people these days have urban backgrounds and do not know if living in rural areas will suit them. They have heard lots of stories about rural living, some of it positive, but some of it about having no private life, living in a fishbowl, etc. By offering housing, esp. cheap housing, a teacher can have an incentive to try rural teaching without the commitment of having to sell up where they are and buy locally, or the hassle of trying to find accommodation locally.
The subsidy on rents has now largely disappeared (teachers pay about 75-80% of the market rate) but local school governors now own and operate the houses. If a teacher does not require the house, it can be let to others who want it. The school is responsible for maintenance, upgrade, insurance and other costs. At our school, the income from the rents is more than covering the ongoing costs, so the scheme is working well for everyone. If your school has the ability to purchase and maintain the house, then I encourage you to go for it!
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FROM WEST VIRGINIA: I can't speak to teacher housing, but here in Harrison County, West Virginia we have provided the land and the utility hookups for police officers to live on the campus of our rural high schools. I believe in one case, the school board even owns the home but in most, the officer sets up their own pre-fab/modular home. This is a win-win for the school and the officer. Providing housing has worked well for the military, universities and hospitals that I know of.
Our county school system web-site has names and contact numbers if anyone would like to inquire about the officers residing on campus..
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FROM ALABAMA: This does not seem to be a big issue in my county anymore. Traveling is so much easier now. However, many years ago during my tenure in high school and many years later, there were several elderly women in the community who turned their homes into boarding houses, rented rooms, and shared facilities with new teachers--either during the school days only or until summer session began or until teachers retired, married, moved, or died.
This may be a consideration now. With the economy the way it is, several local widows/widowers may be convinced to open their homes to new teachers for rent during the school session.
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FROM MAINE: Several islands in Maine do this to retain teachers. Vinal Haven, Isle Au Haut and Isleboro. Not sure the contacts, but the internet is your friend!
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Small colleges located in smaller housing markets often buy houses for first year faculty members to rent. I think this is a great, unique idea for a rural school to try.
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A suggestion is to examine some programs or grants that will assist in building suitable housing for the teachres at a fair market value and will also involve older children or children who would have dropped out of school and need to learn a trade a place to work and learn skills. YouthBuild is a great program and it is sanctioned by HUD as one of the best. It appears to be a win-win situation from the research I have done on the program. Living in a rural and remote area I know the strain of bringing in quality people to teach and work. As a rural mental health practioner who provides school psychological testing and counseling for remote areas I see this issue often.
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Two thoughts on this. 1) Check with international English as a second language programs in Korea. They typically provide housing for their teachers and may have a model for this kind of venture. 2) Employer as landlord can create all kinds of sticky human resource grievance issues. For that reason, if the school decides to pursue this option they might consider handling the property management in this manner: Purchase property for teacher housing, an apartment building or block of condominiums might be the best option. Instead of acting as a landlord for that property, the school would contract with a property management firm. The property management firm would act as the landlord. Be sure to contact a legal professional to discuss all the potential liability issues related to this kind of an arrangement.